BBAW Day Two--I Interview Meg from A Bookish Affair

Quick thanks to Risa for pointing out that I neglected to include a link to Meg's blog.  Please click the image above to visit A Bookish Affair.

1. You started blogging in 2011. Can you tell me what led you to book blogging? 

I've always read a lot. Before I started book blogging, I kept track of what I read through Goodreads. I saw a couple people that I had "met" through Goodreads had book blogs and check them out and decided that book blogging was something that I could do too!

2. What is your go-to genre--the genre which you know almost every book you pick up you will like? What makes this genre your top choice? 

For me, Historical Fiction is probably my go-to genre. I'm a history buff and I think that HF is a fun way to learn something. I love seeing how people lived in different time periods and I love seeing how some of the things that we struggle with today are things that people struggled with way back when. It makes you feel a little less alone in the world.

3. If you were to branch out from your reading comfort zone, in what direction would you go? Book blogging has actually broadened my reading a lot. I've always been an eclectic reader but book blogging has opened me up to genres like Young Adult Fiction and Romance. I love that this community has done that for me!

4. Can you give me your top three favorite books of all time? 

Oh man, this is like choosing children. Here are three books (in no particular order) that I love a lot.
1. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez (this love story is amazing, so amazing).
2. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (this is the book that I recommend to everyone I meet)
3. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (this book has the special designation of being one that I read in one sitting while at Starbucks; truly the marking of a special book)

5. Tell us a little about your life outside of blogging. 

I live in Maryland with my husband and two kitties. We just bought a 103 year old house so we've been spending a lot of time fixing up the house (see, history has a way of sneaking into all aspects of my life!!!). I work full time but in my free time, I love reading (duh!), entertaining friends and family, and traveling.

6. I know you are a cat lover, like me. A lot of my readers are also cat lovers. Can you tell us about your kitties?

I have two kitties: Totoro and Winston Churchill (oh, history, there you are again). Totoro and Winston are litter mates. I adopted Totoro about 7 years ago from a no kill cat shelter. I only adopted Totoro because I was in college and didn't think I could take care of two cats. I finished college and moved back home so Totoro got used to being with my parents' cats. When I moved out, Totoro was really lonely so I went back to the same no kill shelter and Totoro's brother was still there so I adopted him. At that point, about 3 years had passed since the cats had seen each other. It took them about a day and then they were ready to play and cuddle with each other. I'm completely convinced that they remembered each other!

7. How about a little this or that? 

rock or country? Rock

Fall or Spring? Fall is definitely my favorite season.

Halloween or Christmas? Christmas

coffee or tea? Ooo, that's hard. Coffee in the morning. Tea at night.

cake or pie? Pie (especially apple or peanut butter)

eBooks or paper bound books? or audio books? Paper bound books are the best!

classics or contemporary novels? I have a great fear of classics so contemporary on this one.

Jane Austen or Charles Dickens? Charles Dickens

read-a-thon or reading challenge? Reading challenge

reading or breathing? (I couldn't resist!) Another tough question. Being a former high school swimmer, I can still hold my breath for a really long time so as long as I would be allowed to just hold my breath while reading, I'd be okay :)

I really enjoyed 'meeting' Meg and learning more about her.  Aren't her kitties just lovely?  I'm hoping she will consider joining us for Cat Thursday. =O)

Who did you meet today?

Quick Weekly News

I had to forego my regular longer news post and Mailbox Monday because time got away from me.  I will tell you that I received this wonderful book last week:



I am reading it for review for a blog tour...which is tomorrow.  Yes, another all night reading session!

I will have a full Mailbox Monday post next week with all the goodies I bought at the library sale over the weekend.

In other news...

Please check out the poll for our next read-a-long (right sidebar) at Historical Fiction Connection and please vote if you have an inkling to join us.  There'a a post HERE that tells about each selection in the poll.

Don't forget to sign up for the FrightFall Read-a-Thon coming the first week in October.  All the details and sign-up HERE.

Check out my Halloween event and mini-reading challenge going on throughout the month of October at Castle Macabre.  You can read all about Season of the Witch HERE.

I'm kicking around some ideas for a back to back or combination read-a-thon/write-a-thon.  The read-a-thon will focus entirely on review books.  I'm kicking around ideas and I'll be looking for opinions so be sure to stop by Seasons of Reading and give me your input.  My November is pretty open until my Christmas Reading Challenge starts Thanksgiving week.  Are we really that close to Thanksgiving and Christmas?  Gah!

What's going on in your neck of the woods?

BBAW Day One--Appreciate!

Today's topic: Appreciation! There are no awards this year, but it can still be hard to navigate the huge universe of book blogging. Share with your readers some of the blogs you enjoy reading daily and why.

There are a great many blogs that I enjoy reading and I would like to mention every single one, but logically, that could take all day.  So, I will highlight a few of my favorites.  

Ryan at Wordsmithonia - I like to refer to Ryan as my book blogging mentor.  He is the reason that I started a book blog a little over three years ago.  Since then, we have developed a great friendship.  I love reading his blog.  His reviews are always entertaining and spot on and his weekly feature, Favorite Fictional Character, is always a blast.  Plus, he shares my love for Christmas and is one of the biggest supporters of my year round Christmas blog.

Heather at Between the Covers - I met Heather on Twitter during my weekly TuesBookTalk chats probably over two years ago.  She is now my only loyal participant who meets with me every Tuesday night and that's only one of the reason why she rocks.  We have become great friends.  She started her book blog in 2011 and she writes some of the most insightful reviews I've ever read.  The girl reads a ton! I can't get over how many books she reads in a month.

Melissa at Must Read Faster - When I think of Melissa, I think "snarky wit"....she is such a funny person.  She is one of my most loyal read-a-thon participants.  Like me, she LOVES read-a-thons.  Her blog posts, both reviews and various read-a-thon updates, are always entertaining and fun.  To put it in words she would use, she blogs "like a boss!"

Jillian at A Room of One's Own - I met Jillian when she participated in my Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon this past January.  She writes some of the most interesting blog posts I've read.  And she's the originator of The Classics Club.  That in itself is enough reason to love her.

Krista at Book Review Club - Krista is another blogger I met fairly recently and again, during one of my read-a-thons.  You could not meet a nicer person.  Krista has five kids and home schools all of them.  I don't know how she does that and keeps up with her blog and her kids' blog, Lollipops and Books.  She always makes her blog posts fun and she shares my love of the scary in books.

I'd also like to do a special shout out to all the blogs who participate in my weekly meme, Cat Thursday.  You all are truly awesome! It's so easy to love fellow cat lovers.

Okay, so this is just a smattering of the blogs that I enjoy.  I follow a ton and though I'm not always the best about commenting, I do enjoy reading what they all have to say.  If I did not mention you here, just know that you are loved and appreciated too. =O)

What blogs do you appreciate?  If you'd like to participate in BBAW, click the button below to find out how.

Cat Thursday--Random Funnies

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

It's been a rough week.  Just coming off an illness so just some quick funnies for you today.  Hope you're all having a great week. =O)

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Easy-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
For best results, use HTML mode to edit this section of the post.

Wolf Hall Read-a-Long--Discussion Four

Finally, I'm posting the week four discussion post.  I was finally feeling better yesterday and was able to finish the reading.  I was way behind.  I'm so sorry for being late with this.  I hope you all are still enjoying the book.  I continue to be astounded by Mantel's writing.  Here are some questions to facilitate our discussion:

1. What is the significance to Cromwell of seeing the woman burned at the stake as a child? How could an event such as this have influenced Cromwell in his later attitudes towards Reformation? Does Cromwell have any specific religious convictions? Or is he more driven by convictions of common decency and personal loyalty?

2. What kind of a king is Henry VIII in this novel? What motivates him? Are his preoccupations solely self-interested, or does he have the good of the country in mind as well? What is it that makes him so susceptible to Anne Boleyn’s seductions?

3. In conjuring Cromwell on the page, what does Mantel create, and what does she re-create from this historical record? Along those lines, how does historical fiction influence the way we look at history?

1.  I think seeing the woman burned was very significant for Cromwell.  We already know that Cromwell, as depicted in the book, seems a compassionate sort from an early age.  I believe that he forever associated that execution as a stain on the Catholic faith.  That the woman spoke out against the common tenants of Catholicism, the bread as body of Christ, and was accused of heresy for it, was a defining moment for him.  I believe that Cromwell saw the Reformation as a means for freedom of religion.  Where every person, whether clergy or lay person, could speak out and discuss religion openly without the fear of being persecuted.  I do believe that his convictions stem from common decency and personal loyalty more than him being overtly religious.

2.  I form the same opinion of Henry from this book as I always do.  Although Mantel does not really portray him completely in a negative light, I think that Henry was a king very much motivated by his ego and his need to forever be young and robust.  I think that part of that need could be fulfilled by having a (rightful) son.  He was very much a monarch who wanted to change the rules as it suited him.  He wanted to marry Katherine back in the day and so a special dispensation from the Pope had to be handed down that her and Arthur had not consummated their union.  Then, when Katherine has outlived her welcome and has not produced a son, he's ready to move on to someone new and sets his sights to remarry by having the marriage declared a sin and void because Katherine and Arthur did consummate.  I mean, come on.  Only the king could really pull off something like that, although he was given a run for his money and we all know what he had to do to get what he wanted.  Henry is touted as the monarch who brought the Reformation to England, but he really did it for purely personal reasons, in my opinion.   As for his susceptibility to Anne Boleyn, well we all saw the effect she had on men.  Her room full of admirers, fighting over her affections, even though they knew she was the king's love interest.  And the scene with the French king.  She wrapped him around her finger in a matter of minutes, despite his declaring earlier to Cromwell that she was too flat-chested.  We know that she was not a great beauty, but she had that certain something that attracts men, and, although there were rumors around that she was not a virgin, I don't think that anyone who fell under her spell really believed them. And so her virginity added to her allure.

3.  I honestly do not know much about Cromwell historically.  Just the basics.  However, I can't help but feel that Wolf Hall is very historically accurate regarding him.  The book has inspired me to do more reading on him and I hope I find him as interesting historically as he is depicted here.  I believe that good historical fiction does it's job correctly if it inspires us to do further reading and learn more on the subjects we found so intriguing while reading historical novels.  If anything, historical fiction helps us to see that history is indeed entertaining and thought provoking.

What did you think?

Review Copy Cleanup/Read-a-Thon Updates

***This is a sticky post.  Please scroll down for newer content***

Review Copy Cleanup--3 completed

Beneath the Slashings by Michelle Isenhoff (review)
White Lies by Jeremy Bates (review)
The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle (review)

Back to School Read-a-Thon
Day 1, 2, & 3-- 

• # pages read: 409
• # books finished: 1 (The Hallowed Ones) 
• WTD pages: 409
• WTD books:  1

Gone with the Wind and Wuthering Heights Read-a-Longs

Since I started reading Gone with the Wind earlier this year and had plans to finish it before the year is out (it is actually a re-read for me), I decided to join Fanda's (Fanda Classiclit) read-a-long.  Here are a few details from Fanda:

• The read along is from September 1st to November 7th, 2012.
• You can have your own pace, manage your own schedule.
• After finishing each part (Part 1, 2, 3, and 4) you are encouraged (but not mandatory) to write update posts (see details in Master Post).
• As you have your own pace, you can post update posts anytime you like, and put the link in the linky provided on Update Posts page (the linky is already opened).
• When you have linked your update post, don’t forget to visit others who have finished the same Part you just posted, to see about their thoughts.
• Each update post will be counted as one entry for my giveaway(details will follow).
• After finishing last part (Part 5), post your review/thoughts on Margaret Mitchell’s birthday, November 8th, 2012.

For all the details, visit the Master Post and to sign-up, go HERE.

Yes, yes, I know.  I'm a crazy loony with all these read-a-longs, but how can I resist Wuthering Heights (another re-read and favorite)?  This one is hosted by Wallace at Unputdownables.  It's a fairly easy one, as the book is only a bit over 300 pages and we're doing it in eight weeks...so, roughly 41 pages a week.  Full details and sign-up are HERE.