Monthly Reading Wrap Up for June 2013

Being on vacation when the month changed, I missed a timely monthly recap, and so even though we are a bit into July now, but I'd still like to list what I managed to read in June.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter: An Italian innkeeper meets an American movie star which changes both of their lives from that moment on.

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers: Ismae finds herself at an assassin school and then is assigned to the court to protect the Princess.

Paris by Janelle McCullough: A beautifully photographed book about the different personalities of several Parisian neighborhoods.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman: A guy visits his childhood home and has a flashback to a very strange incident that happened when he was seven.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith: A girl going to her dad's wedding in London meets a guy going to his dad's funeral in London and they connect and have deep thoughts about their parents and relationships.

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi: A girl is on the run from a corrupt society that wants to use her unique power to do very bad things.

Rick Steves' Pocket Paris and Pocket London: Can I count these as books read this month? At least I would like to give them a plug. AWESOME little books! They were perfect for us to haul around these two cities and use as a reference guide and walking tour guides and guides through the museums. All the info you need for anything in these cities is compiled and condensed into these cute little, easy to carry books. I loved them and they did their job perfectly. Highly recommended! We love Rick Steves at this house!

Favorite of the month: Definitely Beautiful Ruins.

Plans for July:

• continue with some ebooks that have built up on the Kindle and are begging to be read (see list here.)
• re-read Edenbrooke for book club
• maybe continue with Hood which I started last month

And that's about it! My goals for the rest of this month will be very very modest!

How's the reading this summer going for all of you?

Top Ten Tuesday: Best and Worst Movies!

And now I give you the best and worst movie adaptations. Well, at least the ones that came to mind at the moment.

The BEST:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird: Gregory Peck totally nailed that Atticus!

2. The Lord of the Rings... of course.

3. Holes is one of my all time favorite books to movies.

4. Pride and Prejudice... one that I'm sure everyone will be listing. (The BBC one of course.)

5. Harry Potter... almost all of them. I think they did an amazing job with this endeavor.

The WORST:

1. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) Every thing was all wrong!! And it took out too many events and it added events that had nothing to do with the book.

2. Eragon: All wrong again. Just bad bad bad. Somehow, the movie totally lost the emotion of the book. How can they do that?

3. Ella Enchanted: It wasn't a bad movie, but it pretty much had nothing to do with the book, you know.

Hmmm... I'm sure there's many more bad ones, but that's all I can think of at the moment!


Agree or disagree? Check out everyone's lists at The Broke and the Bookish!

Happy 4th!

To wish you a Happy 4th here in the US I'm sharing one of my favorite songs! It's actually a Civil War song and is set to Civil War images, but still. I think it'll work for today too.




What patriotic song really moves you?

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Intimidating Books

Ah, there are so many scary books out there! Scary, as in, too hard, too long, too controversial, too buzzed about, too... I don't know... many many things!

Here are few that are on my list:

1. Ulysses by James Joyce
2. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson
4. Clarissa by Samual Richardson
5. The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer
6. The Wings of a Dove by Henry James
7. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
8. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
9. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
10. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (though I have read half!)

What books scare you a bit? Link on up over The Broke and the Bookish!

Mini Bloggiesta This Month!

Just a heads up for all you Bloggiesta people!

We'll be having our second "MINI" Bloggiesta this month on July 20 and 21... a Saturday and Sunday. The difference between a mini event and main event, besides the obvious that it's just two days long instead of three, is that we will have fewer mini challenges, fewer Twitter chats, and that it's just a bit more easy going and relaxed.

Basically, it's an in between event where you can make a to do list, work on your blog and chat a bit with others doing the same, just like in a main Bloggiesta, but without as much hoopla about it.

Make sense?

I hope you join us! Mark you calenders!

And be sure to check out the website and our new Facebook page for updates.

A French Song!

Here's Josh helping me celebrate my arrival in Paris:



Parfait, n'est pas?

Extreme Mini Reviews: Top Ten 2006

Before I blogged, I kept track of the books I'd read in a notebook and then made a top ten list at the end of the year. For those lists, I've since written up an "extreme mini reviews" post... all except the year 2006... the year before I started blogging.

So today I give you extreme mini reviews for my Top Tens from 2006!

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz: This book blew me away with its dark Gothic intrigue, its complicated literary plot and its crazy characters. Loved it totally!

These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner: I have since revisited this book for book club and remembered that I loved the diary style of this book and how that shows the character's progression. So awesome. And besides, this is one of my all time favorite love stories.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini: I've also since re-read this one for book club and raved about it in its own post. The story is so moving and so powerful and so sad. At the point of reading this book, I had never before read anything at all like it. 

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: This book was a re-read for me back in 2006 for book club. It was fun to remember how awesome Col. Brandon is and how crazy in love dear sensible Elinor is. Love this story, and I'm thinking it's about time for yet another re-read.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld: Wow, this book took the book world by storm! I loved this first installment and but the follow ups weren't quite was wonderful. Anyway, this book started a whole new vocabulary that I even still use today and has a love triangle that made me crazy.

Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini: Another popular book set that year. I really enjoyed Eragon, but Eldest was totally amazing with its twists and turns and stuff.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley: I can't remember if I read this one before or after Twilight....you know... I'm think it was before, because it was summer I remember and Twilight was in the fall. Anyway, one of the best vampire books I've read... still... even after the deluge! 

Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz: This was an Oprah book club book which I was still getting into a bit back in 2006. However, I can't remember anything about it now! It must have been good though!

The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue: Oh...yeah...this one was creepy stuff! I think I read with an online book club so it's one of those books I would not have picked up otherwise. I get chilly just think about it, but yet once again, I can't quite remember the details! Ugh, I hate how that happens!

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende: Loved this historical romance about a girl from South America who comes to San Francisco during the gold rush and ends up falling in love with a Chinese guy. 

Twilight and New Moon by Stephenie Meyer: Yeah, so I don't think I need to say much here! I read these books that fall, after I'd seen a newspaper article about New Moon and so I put them both on hold at the library. Strange concept. And read them both during that month when they finally came to me. Then I went out and bought them for Christmas. And read them again. 

Extreme Mini Reviews from other pre-blogging years:

2002 Top Ten

2003 Top Ten

2004 Top Ten

2005 Top Ten