Goodreads Catch-Up Read-a-Thon

FINAL WRAP-UP--not much of a success.  I finished The Color Purple and read some from other books.  Having the flu did not help...at all! Total pages read:  380

Thanks again to Once Upon a Chapter for hosting.  Wish I could have done better.


Yes, I know...another read-a-thon. But, as I was getting ready to have another self-imposed read-a-thon anyway, this couldn't come at a better time. Stephanie at Once Upon a Chapter is hosting this one.  Here are the details from her blog:

*Will run from 2/24 (12:01 AM) to 3/1 (11:59 PM).

*If you are a blogger, please do a post announcing your participation. If you want to do all of your updating from one post, that is completely fine by me. (You can also grab the smaller button below.)

*I will be having mini-challenges throughout the week. Two for US residents and one for my international friends!

*I can’t stress this enough: HAVE FUN with the read-a-thon!

To sign up, visit her BLOG


What will I be reading...hmmm?


Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (yes, I'm still trying to catch up for the read-a-long)
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Oleanna by Julia K. Rose
Macbeth by Shakespeare
The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose
The Color Purple by Alice Walker (finish on Tuesday for TuesBookTalk)

I'm going to use this post for all my updates and I will make it a sticky post.

*******

So clearly the update template didn't work since I haven't been updating because I've been sick with the flu.  Yuck! I'm still sick...not as bad as I was, but still not 100%.  I did a little bit of reading though.

I read:
The Color Purple by Alice Walker....87 pages, finished
The Secret History by Donna Tartt....23 pages
The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose....53 pages
Oleanna by Julia K. Rose...currently reading, on page 23

I'm still reading and will continue through the end of the read-a-thon tomorrow night!

Zurker: YOU can own shares in this social network!

Can you imagine if you could have got in with Facebook on the ground floor?  Who knows what might have happened, right?  Well, I have your chance to get in with Zurker, the first social network that gives you ownership shares.  They are invite only right now so here's you invite....join me for free! Supposedly, the features are going to be improved over Facebook.  Personally, I think Facebook is fine, but I'm always willing to check out something new.  How about you?

What are vShares and how does it work?  vShares entitle the owner to own equity in Zurker, and shares in the future Zurker corporation. One vShare is equivalent to ownership of 1/1,000,000 of Zurker. When 1,000,000 vShares have been allocated, Zurker will be restructured as a public corporation and vShares will become real shares!

Cat Thursday...An Extra Special Edition!

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! (share your post in the Mr. Linky below)


I'd like to introduce you to the new edition to our family, Arya Snow!

Arya is named for two of my favorite characters in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, Arya Stark and Jon Snow.  She is about four months old.  A little back story on her...my grandmother got her around Christmas.  Now my grandmother is in her 80s and she always seems to forget that she has severe asthma and when a kitten reaches a certain age, their dander really kicks in, thus negatively affecting said person with severe asthma.  Of course, I knew that she would not be keeping her very long so I told my dad that I would take her when Grandma was ready.  It turns out, she was ready last week.  So lucky us...we picked her up Sunday.  She has adjusted quite nicely and she's learning her name.  And Alice is starting to be more tolerant of her and they have even played a few times (see pics below) so I'm hoping they'll be fast friends soon.  We couldn't be more happy to have another fur baby in our midst!

 Getting sleepy

 And she's out

 Alice is warming up to her

Peaking at Alice

Novel Glimpses (7)--The Time Machine, The Color Purple

Novel Glimpses is my feature for mini-reviews...really just a fancy name for them! The only difference than with my traditional mini-reviews is that I will include my Goodreads rating, something I do not do with my regular reviews. Feel free to participate...just credit me and link back if you do. (want to read a book description?  Clicking the book covers will take you to the book's page on Amazon).


The Color Purple by Alice Walker
My Goodreads rating:  4 stars
One of my favorite films is The Color Purple.  I actually didn't realize it until recently, as I was reading the book and it just happened to come on cable.  I proceeded to watch it twice during the time of reading the book and I remembered how much I loved it.  Well, the film in no way prepared me for how wonderful the book is.  The film and the book are actually pretty close until it gets closer to the end.  The ending in the book blows the movie away.  The Color Purple is not just a story of a black woman who struggles with an abusive husband and missing a sister who she felt was the only person who ever loved her.  It's a story of a community of black people who try to exist in a world of the white man's disdain and oppression.  What makes the book so much better than the movie is that Walker allows the characters to grow in the end.  There is a feeling of redemption for all of the characters, not just Celie.  I liked it much better.  Once again, the book prevails over the movie.  Go figure. ;O)

Reading Challenges:

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
My Goodreads rating:  4 stars
This is a really short read, but no less impactful.  Wells really was ahead of his time in the prediction of man's future on earth.  Yes, certainly, what he predicted for our future has not happened...yet...and we will never know in our lifetimes (or our childrens' lifetimes) if it will happen this way.  But I believe the future of our world is bound to end up similarly, especially if mankind doesn't start changing its ways now.  And, of course, it's a question of evolution as well.  Wells was an expert craftsman in his depiction of the starkly different characters of the Eloi and the Morlocks.  Again, for a very short book, the story packs quite a punch.  I listened to it on audio and it was very easy book to listen to in this way.

Reading Challenges:

Book Tour: Guest Post--M.J. Rose, author of The Book of Lost Fragrances

M.J. Rose: I've been fascinated with lost fragrances since long before I started writing The Book of Lost Fragrances... since I found a bottle of perfume on my great grandmother's dresser that had belonged to her mother in Russia. Here is one of those lost fragrances that stirs the senses and the imagination... (reasearched and described with the help of the perfume writer Dimitrios Dimitriadis)

GUERLAIN - FLEUR DE FEU Glorious carnation rests at the heart of this extraordinarily rare perfume created in 1948 by French perfumers Guerlain. Fleur de Feu (or 'Fire Flower') was Guerlain's first fragrance released after WWII, and is a warm, radiant floral with crisp aldehydes in the opening. It boasts a sensual bouquet of carnation, jasmine, ylang ylang and iris, over a lip-smacking Guerlinade vanilla/tonka base. Now sadly a thing of the past, Fleur de Feu is a bright, shining star in the firmament of yesteryear.

M.J. Rose is the international best selling author of eleven novels and two non-fiction books on marketing. Her next novel THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES (Atria/S&S) will be published in March 2012. Her fiction and non-fiction has appeared in many magazines and reviews including Oprah Magazine. She has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and NPR radio. Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the '80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors - Authorbuzz.com. The television series PAST LIFE, was based on Rose's novels in the Renincarnationist series. She is one of the founding board members of International Thriller Writers and runs the blog- Buzz, Balls & Hype. She is also the co-founder of Peroozal.com and BookTrib.com.

Rose lives in CT with her husband the musician and composer, Doug Scofield, and their very spoiled and often photographed dog, Winka.

For more information on M.J. Rose and her novels, please visit her WEBSITE. You can also find her on Facebook.

A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra--and lost for 2,000 years. 

Jac L'Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances--and of her mother's suicide--she moved to America. Now, fourteen years later she and her brother have inherited the company along with it's financial problems. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing--leaving a dead body in his wake--Jac is plunged into a world she thought she'd left behind.

Back in Paris to investigate her brother's disappearance, Jac becomes haunted by the legend the House of L'Etoile has been espousing since 1799. Is there a scent that can unlock the mystery of reincarnation - or is it just another dream infused perfume?

The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra's Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet's battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac's quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past. 

Take a look at the TOUR SCHEDULE to visit more stops on the tour

Twitter Hashtag: #LostFragrancesVirtualBookTour 

Watch for my review on Friday....

TuesBookTalk March Selection: House of Leaves

TuesBookTalk Read Alongs on Twitter (@tuesbooktalk  #tuesbooktalk) and on Goodreads chose fantasy (epic, steampunk, dystopian, fairy tales retold, etc.) for March's genre.  Our discussion starts Tuesday, March 6 on Twitter at 10:30pm ET/9:30pm CT.  You do not have to join us on Twitter.  Feel free to share your thoughts in the Goodreads group if you can't make the chat on Twitter.  Get the full reading schedule HERE.  This month we are reading:

Mailbox Monday

A quick Mailbox Monday post this week, as I have the flu and I barely have enough energy to do anything.  Damn it.  =O(



Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia and is currently on tour. This month's host is Metroreader. (want to read a book description? Clicking the book covers will take you to the book's page on Amazon)

FOR REVIEW:
The Queen's Pleasure by Brandy Purdy....tour with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours


BOOKMOOCH:
Witch Child by Celia Rees


BARNES AND NOBLE (GIFT CARD):
Vampire Haiku by Ryan Mecum