Weekly Geeks - Good intentions and all that!

My history of participating in Weekly Geeks rather sporadically has continued! Most of the time it isn't because I don't like the theme. Usually I start a post but never actually get around to finish it. This week's theme is tailor-made for me! I am always buying books and not reading them.

I think just about every reader has a least one book that they've been meaning to read for awhile (months or even years) but, for one reason or another, they just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe it's a book a friend recommended last year, or a title you've flirted with in a bookstore on more than one occasion, or maybe it's a book that's sitting right there on your
bookshelf, patiently waiting for you to pick it up -- but the thought is always
there, in the back of your mind: Why haven't I read this yet?This week, tell us
about a book (or books) you have been meaning to read. What is it? How long have
you wanted to read it? And, why haven't you read it yet? When you have written
your post, be sure to come back and leave a link to the post's URL (not your
blog's main URL) to Mr. Linky. Be sure to visit other Geeks and see which books
they've been meaning to read. Have a great week everyone!

I have a list of books a mile long that I have been meaning to read! Far too long in fact for one post. In order to try and narrow done the list a little I have decided to only focus on those books that I own that I have been meaning to read and not think about all the books that I know that I can get from the library. Some of these books I have owned for six or seven years and I still haven't read. Others are books that I really, really wanted to read more recently but still haven't been able to get to.

Even with only that criteria there are still a LOT of unread books around my house! In fact, I just shocked myself and all my workmates when I discovered that there are actually more than 300! Obviously I am not going to list them all here. I thought that instead of just listing the books here, I would make this an informal poll! Every year I always try to read some of the books that I owned before the start of the year so that I can kid myself that all these unread books are not completely taking over my bookshelves. Below are the 10 books that I really MUST read, and so if you all vote on which book you think I should read by leaving a comment, then I will promise to read the winning book before the end of September. So here are the choices:

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis - I bought this book more than 4 years ago. I think I first heard of it after reading the early Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon and looking for more time travel novels.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova - Bought this one when it first came out. Never read it.

Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman - I love Penman's writing, but I had been waiting to read this one until it was closer to the release date of the third book in the trilogy, The Devil's Brood. That book came out nearly a year ago. Whoops!

Tully by Paullina Simons - I am a huge Paullina Simons fan, but I still have two books by her to read. With a new one coming out in November, maybe now is a good time to read this one as well.

Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier - I loved Rebecca when I read it, but really haven't managed to read any more of her books. Every time I read a review of one I think "I really must read more".

Winter in Madrid by C J Sansom - One of those authors I fully expect to love to read, when I get around to actually giving him a go!

Tangled Webs by Anne Bishop - I was so excited when I heard this book was coming out. I actually won it in a contest which possibly makes it worse that I still haven't read it.

Fire Study by Maria V Snyder - The third book in the Study trilogy. This author has now moved onto a spin off series that I really, really want to read.

The Huntress by Susan Carroll - I was so excited at the prospect of this book being released. The next book in the series has recently been released which makes it worse that I haven't read this one yet.

Mariana by Susanna Kearsley - This is a relatively new acquisition. One of my favourite books so far this year has been The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley, and I really want to read more of her books.

That only leaves 290+ more books that I have wanted to read enough to buy!

So, which book do you think I should read?

Weekly Geeks - Where in the World Have You Been?

This week's Weekly Geeks theme is a good one, asking Where in the World Have You Been? in your reading.

This week's Weekly Geeks asks you to tell us about your globe trotting via books. Are you a global reader? How many countries have you "visited" in your reading? What are your favorite places or cultures to read about? Can you recommend particularly good books about certain regions, countries or continents? How do you find out about books from other countries? What countries would you like to read that you haven't yet?

Use your own criteria about what you consider to be "visiting" -- whether a book is written about the country or by a native or resident of the country.

For fun, create one of these maps at this website ticking off the countries you've read books from - you might be surprised how many (or how few!) countries you've read. Include the map in your blog post if you're so inclined.

So here's my map, based on the books that I have read in the last 18 months:



The one obvious gap is books set in South America, and Africa is probably a little under represented, although I did read a couple of books set in other African countries, but just not in the last couple of years. Other than that the map is pretty full. Of course, it helps when you block out huge blocks of the map with some of the larger countries like China, Russia, USA and Canada.

I think I am pretty open to reading books about most countries - as long as the story is a good one, then I will read it. I do particularly like books set in Russia and Europe, especially if it is historical fiction.

Weekly Geeks/Once Upon a Time III challenge wrap-up

It has been ages since I have done a Weekly Geeks post, but this week's topic seems very relevant to a Reading-Challenge-aholic like me!

"Reading Challenges: a help or a hurt? Do you find that the reading challenges keep you organized and goal-oriented? Or, do you find that as you near the end of a challenge that you've failed because you fell short of your original goals? As a result of some reading challenges, I've picked up books that I would have otherwise never heard of or picked up; that, frankly, I have loved. Have you experienced the same with challenges? If so, which ones? Do you have favorite reading challenges?"

I have a love hate relationship with reading challenges. I love to do them, but occasionally I do feel pressurised by them. I do think that I am a bit better at them as over the last year or so, I have worked what I need to do out that in order to make the challenges work for me, and not feel as though I am reading just for challenges or what feels a lot like "assigned" reading. The key for me is to only select books that are already on my reading list for any challenges rather than selecting new titles. One of the things that does tend to happen though is that I add a lot more books to the To Be Read list as a result of participating in challenges! That isn't a bad thing, but my list is getting really long already.

In order to try and keep track of what challenges I am participating and what books I need to read, I now have a spreadsheet that I use to list the books that I am planning to read, along with details like whether they are going to fit for more than one challenge, and the due date to read them by. This doesn't always guarantee that I will meet the challenge deadlines but I get a lot closer than I was.

So far this year, I have completed 11 challenges which you can see in my side bar) and I am currently participating in 6 challenges as well as 3 ongoing challenges. In fact, the main challenges that I am really struggling with at the moment are those ongoing challenges - The Complete Booker, The Orange Prize Project and the Pulitzer Project as I haven't read anything for any of them at all this year!

I must confess to being a bit of a magpie when it comes to Reading Challenges. Whilst there are some challenges that I can see myself joining in on for a very long time (for example the Chunkster Challenge, and the Pub challenges), I am also attracted to new challenges particularly if they have very pretty buttons. I know that I am not alone in having 'oh, look at the shiny button!" moments.

For me, regardless of crossing books off of the TBR list, or having pretty buttons, the best benefit of challenges is without doubt the opportunity to get to know other book bloggers. Even events like Bloggiesta last weekend showed me once again just how many new to me book bloggers there are out there in blogland!

It seems fitting that in the final part of this post I talk about a challenge that finished in the last few days. Carl V always does an awesome job at the organisation of the three challenges that he runs each year and this year's Once Upon a Time III is no exception. The challenge ran from March 21 to June 20 and the focus was on fantasy, or folklore, or fairy tales, or mythology. I chose to read 5 books from any of the above characters. Since the start of the challenge I have read the following books which fitted the criteria:

Superior Saturday by Garth Nix
The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts
**Marked and Betrayed by PC Cast and Kristin Cast
Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon
**Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
The Swan Maiden by Jules Watson
The Terror by Dan Simmons
Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon
Fish Out of Water by Mary Janice Davidson
**My Big Supernatural Wedding anthology
Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
The Dreaming Place by Charles de Lint
**Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur

A couple of years ago I wouldn't have called myself a fantasy reader so that list of book actually quite impresses me!

I thought I would comment on a couple of things. The books that I have masked with the ** are books that possibly fit better into the RIP challenge as most of them feature vampires or werewolves, but I guess they could come under the fantasy label. The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts and The Terror by Dan Simmons are probably more correctly classified as horror as well but I have included them for the purposes of this challenge.

The reason why I include The Swan Maiden by Jules Watson in the list is because her excellent novel is a retelling of a Celtic myth and one of the main story lines in The Forgotten Garden by
Kate Morton is about a book of fairy tales and the fairy tale aspect is integral to the storyline.

So, Once Upon a Time III is over. Roll on RIP!

Weekly Geeks #12

I have been such a bad weekly geeker lately. Even on those weeks when the theme is one that I am really interested in (like last week's Historical Fiction theme) I just haven't gotten around to writing the post! So now that I am up at 5.15am on a Monday morning, this seems like the perfect time to write up a WG post! As to why I am up at this time, I went to bed early to read, fell asleep and then woke up at just after 4am and couldn't get back to sleep!

This week's theme is revisiting a theme that Dewey had last year about linking to each other's reviews. Here are the details:

1. Write a post encouraging readers to look through your archives (if you have your reviews in a particular place on your blog, point them there), and find the books that they have also written reviews. Tell them to leave a link to their review on your review post. For example, I've written a review for Gods Behaving Badly and Jane Doe leaves a link to her review of Gods Behaving Badly in the comments section of my review.


2. Edit your reviews to include those links in the body of the review post.


3. Visit other Weekly Geeks and go through their reviews. Leave links for them.


4. Leave a note somewhere on your blog to let people know this is your new policy.


5. Write a post later this week letting us know how your project is going!


This is a big undertaking but as Dewey put it, it's 'community building'. Have fun!

I have instituted this as a permanent policy on my blog, as evidenced by the "Linking Reviews" statement on my sidebar, and the feed footer comment that goes out on my RSS feeder every time I post! Having said that, it would probably be a bit more effective if I had actually written any reviews lately. Anyway ... I have an alphabet index that you can access here. Feel free to have a look through them and leave a comment either on this post, or on the actual post and I will add the links in as soon as I can.

Weekly Geeks- Other interests

Nearly missed this weeks Weekly Geeks! I had started the post and then forgot about it!

#1. What are you passionate about besides reading and blogging? For example, are you crafty (knitting, woodworking, scrapbooking, model building)? Do you cook? Into gaming (computer or board)? Sports (player or spectator)? Photography? Maybe you like geocaching, rock climbing? Or love attending events like renaissance fairs, concerts? Music? Dancing? You get the idea.

Tell us why you're passionate about it. Post photos of what you've made or of yourself doing whatever it is you love doing.

I am passionate about a couple of other things I guess! No matter how much I can't stand my boss, I am passionate about my job, but that would be a pretty boring post wouldn't it!

I am not too sure that passionate isn't too strong a word, but another thing I am enjoy a lot is watching sport! I am a total couch potato when it comes to watching sport. I am happy to watch nearly anything, particularly when it comes to the finals of any event. This year I managed to be off work for all of the Australian Open tennis. Whilst I have been in previous year to watch matches live that didn't happen this year, but I did watch an awful lot of games, until the very late hours of the night. WE have also been watching the cricket, despite the fact that the the national team hasn't been playing that well. I do like to watch the English Premier League and A League (Australian soccer) but I have had a tendency to fall asleep before the EPL games started lately.

If I would have to pick a team to say I was passionate about, it is the Adelaide Crows, who play Australian Rules Football. The pre season tournament starts today. Fortunately the match is not here in Melbourne because we have another really hot day here (44C/111F) with a northerly wind. As an aside, these conditions are really bad if there is a bushfire. We have already had a number of bushfires, and lots over 30 homes in the city in the last couple of weeks, so fingers crossed there are no fires today.

I was planning however to post about card making. The thing is though that so far this year, I have only made one thing (several times) which is pretty poor really! It's probably fair to say that I am passionate about buying things to do card making - not the actual making itself! One of the good things about doing the card making is that it is something that my sister, her mother in law and I all do, so it is something that we share together, and on the nights when we are getting together for workshops or just to make stuff, my son gets to spend time with his uncle so it is a win-win situation for all of us - well, maybe not the uncle but I think he has fun being babysitter!

S0 what did I make? Bookmarks! And I am pretty happy with how they turned out, although I am struggling to get a good image of them to put on here.

#2. Get us involved. Link to tutorials, recipes, Youtube videos, websites, fan sites, etc, anything that will help us learn more about your interest or how to do your hobby. Maybe you'd like to link to another hobbyist whose work you admire or tell us about a book or magazine related to your interest.

To many outsiders the Aussie Rules game appears to have precisely no rules but they are there I promise! What we do have is spectacular leaps and great marks (catches), full body contact and lots of excitement!




To look at some of the other cards that I have made, click here!

#3. Visit other Weekly Geeks. Link in your post to other Geeks who've peaked your interest in their passion. Or maybe you might find a fellow afincionado among us, link to them.

For #3, you'll probably have to come back after other Weekly Geeks have posted.

Well, because I am so late in doing in my post, the weekly wrap up post is already up here, so click on the link to see how many very interesting Weekly Geeks there are around blogland!

Weekly Geeks #3 - The Classics

I don't know where I was last week, but I completely neglected to do Weekly Geeks! So this week I want to get an early start. This week's theme is to "have fun with the classics". The explanation is a long one, so I am just going to link to it for now, and you can go and have a look at the suggestions at your leisure.

The timing of this assignment is actually pretty good because I have just recently finished listening to Great Expectations on audio book. Having really enjoyed that listening experience I am planning to listen to more classics on audio during this year. The first step will be to rectify what others may perceive as being one of the big gaps in my reading experience, and that is the fact that I have never, ever read any Jane Austen. I have Pride and Prejudice waiting for me to pick up the next time that I make it to the library.

Whilst I have read some classics (some thanks to Oprah and others due to the old Barnes and Noble University), it is an area where I am not as well read as I probably should be. Part of the reason for that is the general impression that reading them will be a bit too much like hard work. Of the ones I have read like East of Eden, Anna Karenina, The Odyssey and One Hundred Years of Solitude, I ended up really loving them. I do think that part of the reason for my enjoyment is the fact that I read it along with an online group, and therefore was able to chat about my reading experience as I went along, and to hear other people's thoughts and questions. With the Gabriel Garcia Marquez books I was able to pick up a couple of his other books and read them by myself, but I haven't yet got that brave when it comes to Tolstoy. It's not that I haven't thought about reading War and Peace for example. It's more that I would prefer to read the version by the same translators who did Anna Karenina and I haven't yet seen it in the shops here, and I don't really think that War and Peace is a practical choice for a library read. Of course, I didn't love them all. There are some that I just didn't really get why particular books are considered classics, or even if I can see why, found them just not readable - not books that you can easily get lost in. (William Faulkner anyone?)

So what prompted me to actually pick up Great Expectations by myself? Well, it was really as a result of other reads. Last year I read Jack Maggs by Peter Carey for an online reading group, and I really did not know until we were part way through the discussion that the book was a reworking of Great Expectations with a couple of additional angles and characters. Not long after that I also read Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones, which isn't a retelling as such but rather a homage to the power of a classic book. Having read both of those, it was an obvious step to actually pick up the book that inspired both of those authors. I think that because the path seemed so organic and that I wasn't forcing myself to read something is a part of why I enjoyed it as well.

The only other classic that I have read recently was North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, and that was inspired by the BBC adaption. (It is sooo tempting to put in a gratuitous picture of Richard Armitage, but I will try to control myself).

I have often thought about reading more classics, particularly as I know that it will enhance my reading of some of my other favourite reads - for example the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde which are populated by so many classic characters. Whilst I have always known who Miss Havisham is as an example, I am pretty sure that I would appreciate her character when she appears in the Fforde books more now that I have read more about Miss Havisham in her original setting.

As an additional part of this week's Weekly Geeks, I am going to try to ensure that I post my review of Great Expectations! Stay tuned.

Oh, what the heck! Gratuitous shot included for my viewing pleasure, and anyone else who happens to enjoy the view too!

Weekly Geeks #1 - Favourites

I am so glad that Weekly Geeks is back. I can't think of a better tribute to Dewey than to keep the events that she started and was passionate about going. This week's Weekly Geeks theme:

In the spirit of the amazing community building that Dewey was so good at, tell us about your favorite blogs, the ones you have bookmarked or subscribe to in your Google Reader, that you visit on a regular basis. Tell us what it is about these blogs that you love, that inspire or educate you or make you laugh. Be sure to link to them so we can find them too.

Now, you may have noticed that I don't do things in small numbers. You only have to look at the number of books I have out from the library to realise that, and blog reading is similar. I have 750 subscriptions in my Bloglines account and it is constantly growing. In order to try and help cope with that, I have my feeds divided into several categories including Authors, Historical Fiction, Craft and the ever helpful Others category (which includes things like LOLcats and Cake Wrecks). Two of the categories are Must Reads, and then Book Reviewers and Romance blogs i.e everyone else. The Must Reads are the blogs that I, well, must read. So if I only have 10 minutes, I will work my way through those blogs, and then come back later and read all the rest. Even if your blog isn't in the must reads category, I will always make an effort to get down to 0 unread at least twice a week, so it's not that I don't read your blog. I do...eventually. I kind of don't like singling out blogs because there are loads that I like to read, and I am always adding more.

In my must read book reviewers category a lot of them are for people who I have either been friends with through boards etc, or who I feel have become friends through blogging, and then those that I read because I really enjoy their content, even though I am probably on the periphery of their blog world! There are more than 50 of those alone, so it would take forever to link to them all so instead I am just copying the lists from Bloglines to here:

* A Reader's Respite (0) (0)
* A Striped Armchair (0) (0)
* A Work in Progress (0) (0)
* an adventure in reading (0) (0)
* B O O K L U S T (0) (0)
* B&b ex libris
* book-a-rama (0) (0)
* Bookfoolery and Babble (0) (0)
* Books 'N Border Collies (0) (0)
* Confessions of a Book Addict (0) (0)
* Cosy World (0) (0)
* dovegreyreader scribbles (0) (0)
* Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?
* J. Kaye's Book Blog
* Le Canapé (0) (0)
* The Literate Housewife Review (0) (0)
* Matilda
* Musings of a Bookish Kitty (0) (0)
* MYSTERIES in PARADISE
* Oklahoma Booklady (0) (0)
* Random Jottings of an Opera and Book Lover (0) (0)
* Rhinoa's Ramblings (0) (0)
* Sassymonkey Reads (0) (0)
* Saving my Sanity ... (0) (0)
* So Many Precious Books, So Little Time (0) (0)
* Stephanie's Confessions of a Book-a-holic
* things mean a lot (0) (0)
* The Written World

When it comes to romance blogs, these are my must reads:

* Aneca's World
* BABBLING ABOUT BOOKS, AND MORE!
* Book Binge (0) (0)
* The Book Bitches (0) (0)
* bookgirl's nightstand (0) (0)
* Dear Author.Com (1) (0)
* The Good, The Bad and The Unread (0) (0)
* Jennie's B(ook)log (0) (0)
* Julia's Books Corner !
* Karen Knows Best (0) (0)
* the life of a dumpling - books, books and books (0) (0)
* The Misadventures of Super_Librarian (0) (0)
* nichtszusagen (0) (0)
* Nobody asked me... (0) (0)
* Nocturnal Wonderings (0) (0)
* Nose In A Book (0) (0)
* Ramblings on Romance Etcetera, Etcetera (0) (0)
* Rosario's Reading Journal (0) (0)
* Sandys Reading Journal (0) (0)
* Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
* thebooksmugglers.com (0) (0)
* Thrifty Reader (0) (0)
* The THRILLIONTH page (0) (0)
* Zeek's Page (0) (0)
* ~ Stacy's Place on Earth ~

You know, it probably isn't so great to list them all like that because it makes it clear how much of an issue I have when it comes to doing things in moderation! LOL!

Weekly Geeks #24 - Fun facts about authors

1. Choose a writer you like.

2. Using resources such as Wikipedia, the author’s website, whatever you can find, make a list of interesting facts about the author.

3. Post your fun facts list in your blog, maybe with a photo of the writer, a collage of his or her books, whatever you want.

4. Come sign the Mr Linky here with the url to your fun facts post.

5. As you run into (or deliberately seek out) other Weekly Geeks’ lists, add links to your post for authors you like or authors you think your readers are interested in.

Haven't done a Weekly Geeks for a while, but this one looks like a lot of fun. I've decided to focus on British author, Elizabeth Chadwick.

1. Elizabeth Chadwick won a Betty Trask award (an award for young novelists under the age of thirty five for a first novel of a romantic or traditional nature) for her first ever published novel, The Wild Hunt. (Click link for my review of this book)

2. The award was presented to her by HRH Prince Charles

3. In 1994, Elizabeth Chadwick was hired by Columbia Pictures to write the book of the movie First Knight, which starred Richard Gere and Sean Connery. (Coincidentally, for a very short time I used to know a girl who was an extra in that film!)

4. On her Musical Soundtracks blog, Elizabeth Chadwick shares the songs that she used for inspiration in her writing. Whilst her novels are very firmly placed within medieval times, her musical tastes range from Billy Joel to Metallica, Kate Bush to Feargal Sharkey.

5. Part of her research is done through her passion for reenactment with Regia Anglorum. She can regularly be found dressed up in medieval clothing, cooking and eating medieval food! An added bonus is that she uses some of her own photographs from RA events in her book trailers. I think that gives them an incredibly personal touch!

6. Another of her research tools is to use Akashic record. To find out more about this interesting subject, click here.

7. On her main blog, Living the History, Elizabeth often shares incredibly detailed posts about her research trips etc. If you are at all interested in medieval times, then this should be a stop on your blog rounds!

8. EC's latest books are difficult to get hold of in the US, but a couple of them are being released by Sourcebooks in the US next year. All I can say is make sure you get hold of them, because they are excellent reads, and it would be fantastic if more of her books were available there as well. If you are really interested in getting hold of her books, then I recommend The Book Depository, who have free postage to certain countries around the world. I think that you can also get them from Amazon.ca.

My reviews of the books are in the links below:

The Greatest Knight
The Scarlet Lion
A Place Beyond Courage
The Time of Singing

9. Most of this information was gleaned from Elizabeth Chadwick's recently revamped website.

And that's it for this week's Weekly Geeks post!

Weekly Geeks #20

This week's Weekly Geeks task is as follows:

This week, let’s see if we can get our readers to help us come up with our one big top books of 2008 list. The more contributors we have, the more accurately our final list will reflect the book blogosphere’s opinions.

How to:

1. Please post about the project in your blog, asking your readers to make their own lists. Please refer them to Weekly Geeks #19 for the details.

2. You can tell your readers that next week I’ll be giving away another box of 11 books from Hachette. ONLY bloggers who have made a top books of 2008 list will be eligible to enter. That means you, too, of course! By the way, I also have two other giveaways going on right now, one that’s open until the 6th and one that’s open until the 8th. Just in case you want to enter those.

3. Your readers who make lists should go back to Weekly Geeks #19 to leave their urls in the Mr Linky by October 11th. I’m not even going to put a Mr Linky in today’s post just because I don’t want the urls left in more than one place. That might confuse me and my wonderful helpers, Renay and Jackie. The url in the WG #19 post counts as an entry for the Hachette box of books, so if you already left your url there, you’re all set.

4. Every time one of your readers leaves a comment on the Weekly Geeks #19 post saying they heard about the top books of 2008 project from you, you get a bonus entry in the drawing.

My Weekly Geeks #19 is here

Weekly Geeks #19 - Best books published in 2008...so far!

Even though I didn't do so well on last week's WG task, I think I can do this one, although it does feel a little early to be starting doing best-of posts!

I’m not asking for any specific number of favorite books, because some people don’t read many brand new books. If you’ve only read two 2008 books this year and hated one of them, then just mention the one you liked. Please limit your list to 10 books, though, if you read a lot of new books. You don’t have to put them in any certain order, either.


1. Compile your list of favorites. Please be sure that books you choose actually were published in 2008, or at the very earliest in the winter holiday season of 2007. Sometimes books that come out then are left out.

2. Come back and sign Mr Linky with the url to your top books of 2008 post.

3. If you happen to see any non-WG bloggers making similar lists, please grab the url and come put it in Mr Linky for them. Let them know you’re doing that, please, in case they have some sort of objection; if they do, they can ask me to remove their link. I’ve already seen a couple favorites of 2008 posts, which is another reason I wanted to get started early.

4. Feel free to make changes to your list if you read something new in the next few weeks. After about October 25, I can’t guarantee your changes will be reflected in the master list. We’ll probably start compiling lists around then.

5. Please consider whether you’d like to help me compile lists.

So far this year I have read 29 books that have been published this year. There are six stand out books so far, and then quite a few honourable mentions. It will be hard to limit those honourable mentions but we will see how we go!

The six standout books are:

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran
Delicious by Sherry Thomas
Let Sleeping Rogues Lie by Sabrina Jeffries
The Lost Duke of Wyndham by Julia Quinn


The honourable mentions are:

Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors
Blue-Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas
The Romanov Bride by Robert Alexander
Personal Demon by Kelley Armstrong


I am surprised that there were that many reviews to link to. Whilst I am not in a reading slump, I am definitely in a reviewing slump. I've lost my reviewing mojo! Oh no.

Weekly Geeks #18 - Catching Up

I haven't done a Weekly Geeks for a while, but this week's encompasses something that I really need to do anyway, so I am joining in again!

This week’s theme is: catch up on… something.

Weekly Geeks #6 was catch up on reviews week, but so many of you organized bloggers were caught up with reviews that you chose to catch up on other things. So I kept in mind that a catch-up week every now and then will probably be welcome. At this point, I’m very behind on several blog tasks, so I thought maybe you might be, too!

Some suggestions:

Catch up on….

…challenges
…organizing your sidebar
…updating lists of some sort (I need to deal with my giveaways list!)
…making links wherever (challenge lists, monthly reading summaries, etc.)
…bloghopping
…your TBR pile
…your library books
…updating your blogroll
…updating your reader
…???

How to:

1. Decide what you need to catch up on.

2. Write a post if you feel like it, telling your readers what you intend to catch up on. If you do that, you can sign Mr Linky right away with the link to that specific post.

3. Catch up!

4. Write a post near the end of the week (Thursday or Friday) summarizing how your catch-up week went. If you didn’t sign Mr Linky with your intentions post, sign it with your summary post.

5. Don’t forget to visit other Weekly Geeks and encourage them in their catching up!

Whilst there are numerous things that I could catch up on, what I have decided to work on is reviews for challenges. I have a number of challenges that I am very near to completing. I just need to write the reviews.

I am not sure how many I will get written because I still have visitors (a fact that I am reminded of as I sit here and listen to my brother snore like a freight train!), and lots happening this week, but we will give it a go.

Weekly Geeks #13 - Author Photos Revealed!

This week's Weekly Geeks challenge was to post photos of your favourite authors and have your visitors guess who was shown. I have to say that I was terrible at guessing who everyone elses favourites were! My original Weekly Geeks post is here.

1. Photos of my favourite authors.





The three authors that I chose to spotlight as my favourites were Diana Gabaldon (good pick up to Kerry who noticed that I unintentionally made it nice and easy by choosing a photo that actually told you who it was!), Elizabeth Chadwick and Kelley Armstrong.

2. Photo(s) of the author(s) of the book(s) you’re currently reading.




At the time when I posted this I was reading Let Sleeping Rogues Lie by Sabrina Jeffries and Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland. I have now finished the first book, but I am still going on the second one.


3. Photo(s) of any author(s) you’ve met in person (even very briefly).


4. A youtube of (an) author(s) you’ve heard speak.

5. Any photo(s) you may have of yourself with an author.


The answer for questions 3, 4 and 5 is all the same - Paullina Simons. You can read more about my experiences of meeting the lovely Paullina here.

6. A photo of the author of the book you’ve most recently finished.


At the time of posting, the last book I had finished was Angelique by Sergeanne Golon. You can read my review of that excellent book here.

Weekly Geeks #13 - Author Photos

I haven't done the last couple of Weekly Geeks. Last week it was because I was too scared to reveal exactly how many half written posts I really have sitting in draft! This week's looks like fun although I really don't like having to narrow my choices down to just one or two authors because I have lots and lots of favourites!

This week’s theme is a sort of meme. (Hey, I rhymed!) Your basic challenge is to post author photos.

Using the meme-like list below, post photos of authors in response. Please feel free to skip any you don’t like. You’re also free (encouraged!) to add your own, but if you do that, please be sure to indicate which are yours, so that people can credit you if they use yours.

But don’t put words/names with your photos. Ask your readers to guess your answers! If you have a book to give away, you may want to offer a prize, maybe draw a name from those readers who guess correctly.

1. Photos of your favorite author(s).
2. Photo(s) of the author(s) of the book(s) you’re currently reading.
3. Photo(s) of any author(s) you’ve met in person (even very briefly).
4. A youtube of (an) author(s) you’ve heard speak.
5. Any photo(s) you may have of yourself with an author.
6. A photo of the author of the book you’ve most recently finished.
7. Photos of the hottest author(s)!

First things first....how do you say meme? I always say it as mem, just like men but with an m at the end instead.

Leave your guesses in the comments! I think that there is probably only one tricky ones in this lot of photos.

1. Photos of my favourite authors. I decided to limit it to just three but there are loads more that I could have added in here.



2. Photo(s) of the author(s) of the book(s) you’re currently reading. (Just to make it a little more challenging I haven't updated my Currently Reading section!)




3. Photo(s) of any author(s) you’ve met in person (even very briefly). This author really should have been under the first question but there is a danger of her being the answer to just about every question!


4. A youtube of (an) author(s) you’ve heard speak.

It's not on Youtube but here is a link to an interview on Australian television from last year. The interviewer obviously hasn't read the book or the interview notes, but never mind!

5. Any photo(s) you may have of yourself with an author. Have I told you lately how much I HATE having my photo taken? I am putting this up but only because I have to! Nice red face...it was a hot night and we had had some wine as well.



6. A photo of the author of the book you’ve most recently finished.


7. Photos of the hottest author(s)!

Errmm. Gonna pass on this one!

Challenges Update

This is my challenge update post for this week's Weekly Geeks.

Are you ready? I'm not sure I am but we will see how it goes! Bear in mind that I have managed to complete 3 challenges so far this year, so I won't be mentioning those again in this post.

Pub 08 Challenge

Of the books that I originally nominated for this challenge, I own both Daughter of York by Anne Easter Smith and Fire Study by Maria V Snyder, but I haven't started reading them yet.

I have Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland, The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin The Pyjama Girls of Lambert Square by Sara Donati and The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig out from the library at the moment. I will get to them in the next few weeks.

I have read People of the Book by Geraldine Brook, but not written the review yet, but have both read and reviewed The Crystal Skull by Manda Scott.

Romance Reading Challenge

Not much movement on this challenge recently. I have read two of the books that I nominated (Warprize by Elizabeth Vaughan, Lessons of Desire by Madeline Hunter and Mine Til Midnight by Lisa Kleypas). I still need to read The Huntress by Susan Carroll and The Wild Hunt by Elizabeth Chadwick.

Chunkster Challenge

I have read (and reviewed) all of the books that I nominated for this challenge except for Wolf of the Plains by Conn Iggulden. I currently have this book out of the library so should get to it soon.

Pulitzer Project

Wow...haven't made any progress on this long term challenge. I have just requested The Known World because I am going to read something for this challenge soon.

The Complete Booker

I have managed to read a few books for this long term challenge. I need to have a look at my lists and request the next book from the library for this one.

The Orange Prize Project

I just finished a book for this project...just need to write the review!

100+ Reading Challenge

Today I read my 93rd book of the year, so I should be able to finish this challenge in the next 3 or 4 weeks tops!

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Of the six books I nominated for this challenge I have read four, plus one of the alternate books I listed. Now I just need to finish off some of the reviews! One of the books was the one that I read today, so it's still pretty fresh in my mind!

Heard It Through the Grapevine Challenge

I was quite surprised when I looked at the list of books that I nominated for this challenge and found that I had actually read one! I have the other two books out from the library at the moment, so will hopefully get to them soon!

Stephenie Meyer Mini Challenge

I am currently reading The Host, and I am no. 10 in the queue for Breaking Dawn at the library so I think I have this challenge pretty much under control.

Weekly Geeks #9 - Challenges

I am a bad Weekly Geeker! Not only did I not do last week's challenge, I didn't do the week before either! I really must get some batteries so that I can check whether it is my camera or my battery recharger that isn't working! I know exactly what I want to take photos of. It's not very exciting - just bookshelves - but mainly because I want to do a before and after shot. I am determined that some time in the next few weeks I am going to be buying a new bookshelf so I want a before and after shot.

Last week's challenge was the Scavenger hunt which I really just didn't have time to do. I do like the idea of the scavenger hunt though, so I hope that there is another, maybe smaller, one another time!

This week’s theme is Challenges.

1. If you participate in any challenges, get organized! Update your lists, post about any you haven’t mentioned, add links of reviews to your lists if you do that, go to the challenge blog if there is one and post there, etc.

2. If you don’t participate in any challenges, then join one! There’s a good selection of possibilities over on my right hand sidebar (scroll down) where I list those I participate in. There’s also A Novel Challenge, a blog that keeps track of all sorts of reading challenges.

3. Towards the end of the week, write a wrap-up post about getting your challenges organized OR if you’re joining your first challenge, post about that any time during the week. Once you have your post up, come back and sign Mr Linky with the link to the specific post, not just to your blog.

Look for a post in the next few days!

Weekly Geeks #7 - Photo Week

The idea for Weekly Geeks this week (#6) was to catch up on reviews, so how did I go? Well, I wrote one, and started another. Not exactly a huge success! Having said that, it has been a really busy week this week!

The theme for this week is Photos.

1. Decide what to illustrate and start taking photos: Most of you are book bloggers, so you may want to post photos of your favorite reading spot, your TBR pile(s), your local book store, your favorite librarian, your child reading, etc. You may want to post several photos of a certain topic (like all nine of your kids reading!) or a mixed bag of photos that are unrelated except that they’re bookish. Or you may want to post just one photo, it’s up to you. If you have a different type of blog, post photos of whatever you think is suitable.

2. Create a post of your photos.

3. Don’t forget! Also link in your post to another participant’s WG photo post. Weekly Geeks is a community thing, remember! If you’re one of the first finished, of course, you may have to add your link later. See if you can find someone you don’t normally read to link to.

4. Once your post is up, come back and leave a link to that specific post (not just your regular blog url) in the Mr Linky at the bottom of this post.

To be honest I am not sure if I can do this one. I haven't decided if there is something wrong with my camera or just with the battery recharger, but I haven't been able to take photos for a while now. I must try and figure it out, because I do want to take some photos of the cards I have been making to post on my poor neglected card making blog! We'll see!

Weekly Geeks #6 - Catch up on Reviews Week

So Dewey has obviously been sneaking a look into the background of my blog and seen exactly how many posts I have sitting in draft, most of which are unwritten or half written reviews! I did manage to post a review for a book that I finished ages ago this week, so it's not like I can't do it!

1. Catch up on your reviews as much as you can this week.

2. Towards the end of the week, write a wrap-up post about how that went for you. You could list all the books you reviewed, if you like, and if some of the posts are up already, you could link to them.

3. Come back and sign the Mister Linky at the bottom of the page with your end-of-the-week wrap-up post.

This one is definitely a challenge!

Weekly Geeks #5

Guten Tag, Weekly Geeks! This week’s theme was suggested by Renay. She says, “I thought it would be cool to ask people to talk about other forms of story-telling.”

Click here to read more details and to find other Weekly Geeks posts.

Well, it has taken me a while, but I have finally come up with an answer to this weeks question! I wanted to be sure to participate this week because last week's post is still sitting in draft, and is not likely to see the light of day any time soon! That's one good thing about the format of Weekly Geeks - you don't have to participate every week!

I really wanted to talk about song as a form of storytelling. A lot of songs tell a story - some more clearly than others. Actually I guess that all songs are telling a story of some description but I do love a song where there is a whole train of thought that progresses logically through to tell us about an event or a relationship or whatever.

If you want to go old school there is Kenny Rogers, who has a number of story songs like Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town, The Gambler and The Coward of the County. Or how about Lucille?

You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille
With four hungry children and a crop in the field
I've had some bad times lived through some sad times
But this time your hurting won't heal
You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille.

I guess it doesn't hurt to love a bit of country if you like these types of songs, and Keith Urban is one of those artists that I could just listen to over and over and over again (and I do!)



Or how about something from the 80's? One of my favourite songs of all time is And We Danced by The Hooters. If I hear it on the radio I just have to turn it up a bit louder and I have been known to dance around the lounge room in the very early hours of the morning to this song!

She was a be-bop baby on a hard day's night
She was hangin' on Johnny, he was holdin' on tight
I could feel her coming from a mile away
There was no use talking, there was nothing to say
When the band began to play and play

And we danced like a wave on the ocean, romanced
We were liars in love and we danced
Swept away for a moment by chance
And we danced and danced danced

I met my be-bop baby at the Union Hall
She could dance all night and shake the paint off the walls
But when I saw her smile across a crowded room
Well I knew we'd have to leave the party soon
As the band began to play out of tune

And we danced like a wave on the ocean, romanced
We were liars in love and we danced
Swept away for a moment by chance
And we danced and danced danced

The endless beat, she's walkin' my way
Hear the music fade when she says
Are we getting too close, do we care to get closer
The room is spinning as she whispers my name

If you want to talk about story songs, it is hard to go past Bryan Adam's Summer of '69, where he talks one particularly memorable summer!



And just because this song contains one of my favourite song lines EVER, I give you Bon Jovi's Bed of Roses. I just love the line where he says 'With an iron clad fist, I wake up and french kiss the morning'.

Reviews?

When I sat down at the computer today, I was thinking that it felt as though I hadn't written a review for days! Turns out, it is more like weeks (with the last review I wrote having been published on May 8)! I promise I do have lots of reviews either started or half written, but just haven't got to finishing them off yet.

Actually, I don't really know what is up with me this last week. I haven't even managed to write my Booking Through Thursday post (even though I knew what I wanted to post), I didn't do Weekly Geeks, and I haven't really said anything at all on the blog! I have still been reading a bit though. Not as much as usual, but enough I guess.

What I have been busy doing is keeping the Georgette Heyer Season going over at Historical Tapestry, and this afternoon I have indulged myself by watching the first two episodes of North and South again....sigh.

Maybe later I will get around to finishing a review post off. Note I said maybe though! Now I should probably go and cook dinner.

Weekly Geeks #3 - Childhood books

This week’s theme comes from Samantha, who suggested that one week we all write about our fond memories of childhood books.

You could approach this several ways. I’ll probably list my favorite childhood books with maybe a paragraph about each book: why I loved it, how old I was when I read it, where I got the book, etc. You could also just pick one childhood favorite and review it as you would any other book. Or, if you’re fast, you could make up a meme other weekly geeks might like to use. It’ll be interesting to see how everyone personalizes this theme. Don’t forget to come back and leave a link to the post in your comment once you’ve written your post. No wrap-up post this week; just the one childhood books post.

When trying to decide how to approach this week's post, I debated about a few different things, but in the end have decided to focus on four different examples!

The first is my first chunkster....or at least I thought so at the time. I remember being in grade 1 or 2 and being so proud of myself because I had read this huge thick book (yes, I loved them even back then!). Having listened to the book with my son not all that long ago, I think it is probably fair to say that there was very big writing in the book, but still...size matters! The book was Wind in the Willows. Funnily enough, the videos for Wind in the Willows have long been my grandmother's favourites, so perhaps a love for Toad, Mole, Ratty and Badger has been passed down through the blood.

I think I have mentioned the second and third books here before, and they are Enid Blyton and the Trixie Belden books. I cannot tell you how much I used to love some of Enid Blyton's books. Not for me the tales of the Famous Five (although I did still like them), but I was captivated by the books like The Magic Faraway Tree books where the land at the top of the tree changed every few days, and you had to ride a big cushion down the big slide in the middle of the tree. The other books I loved by this author was The Wishing Chair books. Can you tell that I used to read to escape reality. Actually I have not so long ago been accused of still reading to escape reality, but that's a whole other post!

As I got older, I then became interested in the Trixie Belden mysteries. I had basically the whole set and I used to love reading their stories, and taking part in the adventures that Trixie and Marty, Brian and Honey, Jim and their other friends and family used to get involved in. My favourite was Jim....what a guy! I guess I still have a soft spot for him.

I also had this thing that I used to do with these books where I tried to give the words in these books a value by assigning a value to each letter and then adding it all up. Good job this is already a post about weekly geeks, otherwise you would all be going...how geeky is she...making up maths games out of words in a book! I am sure if you were to find one of these books there would be pencil marks on it from where I was playing my game!

The fourth example is The Hobbit. When it came to schoolwork, give me Maths or English, or Social Studies and I did quite well, but the subject where I REALLY struggled was Art...couldn't stand it! So the fact that I loved the title page that I did for my book report on The Hobbit really stands out in my mind!