Emotional Rollercoaster

It's been a very emotional week for me! I mentioned briefly that I have resigned from my job. When you say it like that it's very matter of fact, but I have been with my current employer for just under 10 years, and I have a connection with them that goes back to when I was 14 years old. I started with them with the idea of doing a couple of weeks of data entry and here, I am, only just leaving now. I have moved locations several times, including a move from Adelaide to Melbourne, and I have moved through several different systems as well.

Whilst I was excited to hear that I got my new job and very relieved, it is also hard because I have worked with some of these people ever since I moved to Melbourne. When I resigned I cried (and so did my boss's boss), and there is a 100% guarantee that I will again on my last day. All the staff who work for me are calling me all sorts of names (mostly traitor), and assuring me that I will be back again, but I really don't think I will. We are still waiting to hear the final funeral details of my colleague as well. Hopefully that will happen next week.

This move has been on the cards for a while now. When I did my reading goals past at the beginning of 2007 I adjusted down the number of books that I was aiming to read for the year because I was hoping to reduce my commute time down. At the moment my commute takes up over 3 hours each day. When I start the new job it will drop down by just over an hour. Still not 5 minutes from home, but definitely more reasonable.




I was also very excited this week to find out that this blog has been nominated for several BBAW awards and so was Historical Tapestry.

This blog was nominated in three categories:

Best History/Historical Fiction

Most Chatty

Best Romance.


and Historical Tapestry was nominated for two:

Best History/Historical Fiction

Best Collaborative


I was very amused to see that both were nominated in the same category. It will be interesting to see what happens in that category because I read quite a lot of really great historical fiction blogs who are also nominated. Speaking of historical fiction and Historical Tapestry, we have got a huge week lined up over there on Monday, so if you like historical fiction with a medieval setting, or would like to try some, please be sure to pop over there during next week as there will be lots going on!

Can I just say that I am so thrilled to be nominated to Most Chatty. Over the last couple of years in particular I think that the content on my blog has changed quite a lot, from being only book reviews and book related posts to being lots of book things, but also a bit about my life, a bit of craft and a bit of whatever else I fancy. I have not always been sure that that change has always been welcomed, but it has enabled me to continue to feel enthusiastic about blogging. I have been doing this blogging thing for quite a while now, so you would think that I would feel relaxed about what happens here, and I do enjoy it very much still, but like everyone, every now and again I have my doubts!



I was also pleased this week to be given the BINGO award by Allie from Histfic Chick for being N(eighbourly). Allie is a relatively new blogger, but we share a passion for historical fiction. Thanks Allie!

I would like to pass this award onto the following people:

Beautiful : Alex from Le Canape, not only for her own blog, but also the work that she has done on other's blogs like Aneca's World and Historical Tapestry. Have I mentioned that I am thinking about revamping my template Alex?) *wink*

Informative - Reading the Past - Whenever Sarah posts, particularly the seasonal previews, I always end up adding lots of books to my TBR list!

Neighbourly - Aarti from Booklust. I have known Aarti for a long time now, and have always enjoyed her blog. Just recently she has also started the excellent new series, Rosie's Riveters. Besides, if I suck up enough, maybe she will smuggle me in her suitcase when she goes away!

Gorgeous - Michele from A Reader's Respite. You can really see Michele's personality shining through in every post!

Outstanding - Literate Housewife - I love visiting this blog and seeing what is going on there! And Jennifer is so creative as well!



Oh and in completely unrelated matters, I was very excited to see that Girl who Kicked a Hornet's Nest, the third book in the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson is going to be released here in Australia in October. Not sure about the cover though. I know that the second book has only just been released in the US and don't get why the published dates are so different, but I am happy for me at least!

Almost final thing...I signed up for a LJ Smith reading challenge earlier today but didn't copy the link down before I closed the page. I know who I think is hosting it, but I can't find it on the blog! The idea is to read The Vampire Diaries and watch the TV series. Anyone know who is hosting this challenge?

Really final thing...I changed the title of this post just so it made sense to put this video up! If you can imagine it, I am totally dancing in my chair while this is playing! An oldie, but a goodie!

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and me that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

I am a bit late putting up Library Loot this week! Sorry about that.

I was really glad to see a couple of new participants in Library Loot last week! Special welcomes to Christine from Happily Ever After and Lori from Let's Gab.

In terms of my loot, I had a pretty quiet library week. I am not sure what is going on but it seems like transfers between sites are taking ages as there are two books that have been in transit for more than three days. What will most likely happen is that all my holds will come in at once. That's what normally happens anyway.




Counting the Stars by Helen Dunmore - I cannot tell you how many times I have borrowed this book and returned it unread.














Grand Finale by Janet Evanovich - I think I have read all the other rereleased romance and thought some were better than others. Hopefully this is a good one.












City of God: a Novel of Passion and Wonder in Old New York by Beverly Swerling - I have been waiting for this book to both be released and for my library to get it in. I am the first person to borrow it so it will have that lovely new book smell!





What did you get out from the library this week?

Facebook style update

... that I can't put up on Facebook just yet.


Marg resigned from her job today!

Making friends

Last night I went to the movies to see My Sister's Keeper with some friends. The movie itself wasn't bad, and certainly wasn't the worst book to movie adaptation going around even with the fact that the ending of the movie was changed significantly. And yes, I cried loads!

When I said that I was going to see it, the people around me were interested but the biggest reaction I got was when I said who I was going with rather than what I was going to see. I went to see this movie with a group of three ladies who are my train buddies. All the people I work with think it is very strange that I have train friends, but I do. These are people who I generally end up seeing on the train every day at least one way and so after a period of time we started talking to each other about various things from kids and family, to social life, to personal issues, and of course I have to talk books with at least one of them!

What I wonder though is why is this so strange? I find it harder to make friends now than I did when I was very young, both from building a new friendship once you have met someone new, but also in that meeting new people phase. Where do you meet new people? The most obvious place is work, but hopefully there is some stability in your workplace so that there are not constant changes to the staff members. Kids sporting events are another possibility, or maybe a craft group or something, but even then the opportunities to move beyond acquaintance to friendship can be limited. I certainly don't know many people who started talking in a cafe for example and are still close friends years later.

Over the years I have got to know quite a few people that I met initially online. There are a group of ladies that I see semi-regularly that I met at PaullinaSimons.com, then there are the people in other states and countries that I count as my friend even though we have never actually met and there's every chance we never will.

I guess one of the questions to ask is that will I still be in contact with my train buddies if for some reason I started catching different trains. Maybe, maybe not, but I do know that if when I get on the train tonight, one or all of them are on the train, then they will have brightened my day just a little bit!

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week comes from Royal Harlot: A Novel of the Countess of Castlemaine and King Charles II by Susan Holloway Scott. I read the third book in the series a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it, so now I am going back to the beginning to read the first book. The teaser comes from page 262:

This passage was ordinarily overseen by Will Chifflinch, the Page of the Bedchamber, who used it to squire in every manner of secret visitor, from actresses to couriers from King Louis. Now I'd hoped to employ Chifflinch myself to find Charles without being seen by the others still carousing in the privy chamber.

Wearing the hat

To explain the post title, whenever anyone in our office does or says something incredibly stupid, the punishment is to have to put on the fire warden's hat, and stand and say a line in front of everyone else. I think the line comes from What's Eating Gilbert Grape, although I could be wrong there and it is something about climbing a water tower.

So in my recent analysing my YA reads post, I said:

As for mystery, are there even YA mysteries around?

I think that perhaps I meant any new YA mysteries around, because there was plenty around during the years when I really was YA. These days I am way past target audience range, but like so many other adults I still enjoy reading YA novels.

The big three were probably the Nancy Drew books, the Hardy brothers, and, my favourite, Trixie Belden and her friends. I cannot tell you how many times I read through the Trixie Belden series.

Confession time - over the years I have felt quite an affection for quite a few auburn/red haired men in fiction. Yes, Jamie Fraser is right up there, but my first ever love in literary terms was Jim Frayne, adopted brother to Trixie's best friend Honey Wheeler. I always thought Marty was really funny and older Belden Brian very serious, but to make a young girl's heart flutter then Jim was the man for me.

I wonder if tweens or teens who read this series now would find the books dated? I certainly didn't despite the fact that I would have been reading these in the early 80s (*ahem*) but the first of these books was originally published back in 1948. They certainly experienced a bit resurgence twenty years or so ago.

I was a little surprised to see that there were 39 books in this series. I know that I owned the first twenty or so, but no idea if I read the whole series or not. As an aside, over the last few days I have been thinking about doing a post on the series that I am reading. Apparently my love of ongoing series of books started early and has continued all through my reading life!

This next part of the post is only connected to the first part because it relates to my teenage life. I was watching Pretty in Pink tonight. Such good music, such fun fashion. I do have one question. Why on earth was Andrew McCarthy such a huge teenage heart throb? I will say that Jon Cryer made me laugh in this movie, and he still does now! Here's the Duckie dance just for fun.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

As promised in my last post, in honour of YA Appreciation Month which is being hosted over at The Book Smugglers, I am reposting my review of this book. The review was originally posted over at Historical Tapesty in September 2007.

It is 1939, Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier and will become busier still.

Liesel Memminger and her younger brother are being taken by their mother to live with a foster family outside Munich. Liesel's father was taken away on the breath of a single unfamiliar world - Kommunist - and Liesel sees the fear of a similar fate in her mother's eyes. On the journey, Death visits the young boy, and notices Liesel. It will be the first of many near encounters. By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery.

So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife library, where ever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jewish fist-fighter in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

The Book Thief is a story about the power of words to make worlds. In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

The Book Thief is one of those books that you see overwhelmingly positive reviews for around the place. There was therefore a sense of some anticipation, but also some trepidation on starting this book because if so many people like it, it must be good right? But what if I don't? I shouldn't have worried because this was a good book - a very good book!

Just the set up of the book is intriguing, let alone the content. The narrator of the book is Death, and the setting is inside Nazi Germany during WWII. We hear from Death throughout the book, as he injects his own thoughts on life and death throughout the book. He first meets the main character of the book, Liesel, when her younger brother is dying by the sides of the train tracks. Liesel and her brother were being taken to a new foster family who live on the outskirts of Munich. With their father having already been taken away for being a Kommunist, her mother lives in fear, and has decided that it will be safer for her children to be cared for by others...just in case.

Liesel ends up living with a couple by the name of Rosa and Hans Hubermann. They have older children, boys who are off fighting the fight. Rosa is a woman with a tough exterior, but as the book goes on we find that she really has a heart of gold, and Hans is the one who shows Liesel the tenderness that she needs, the one who sits up during the night teaching Liesel to read and comforting her when she can't sleep. Along with the Hubermann's, there are also the other families who live on the street like the next door neighbour who has been feuding with Rosa Hubermann for years and the Steiners, most especially Rudy who becomes Liesel's best friend and fellow adventurer.

There are many subjects that are dealt with in this book. Death is just a few minutes away, the time it takes a bomb to fall, there are food shortages, there is the need for ordinary Germans to join the Nazi party, and the consequences of not joining, young love, loss, and for Liesel there is the thirst to read, to own books, regardless of how she comes to possess them.

Whilst the subjects sounds somewhat depressing, the observations in the novel are sharp, and there are many funny and poignant moments through out the novel. Death (the character) provides many moments where he makes fun of himself, and his own job, but without making it a complete joke. We get to see his own torment as he collects the souls of many people through out the book.

I had not read any of this author's books before, but if all of his other books are of a similar quality to this one, I will definitely be reading more!

Rating 4.5/5

Analysing my YA reads

For the last month, Ana and Thea from The Book Smugglers have been hosting Young Adult Appreciation Month. Over the last few weeks, the Smugglers have been hosting many different authors, guest bloggers, book reviews and giveaways all designed to show the love to YA readers, bloggers and authors. To quote from the girls "we will be discussing the merits of the genre, the apparent boom of YA literature, and the crossover appeal of YA novels."

I first started keeping a fairly accurate track of my reads just over four years ago, and a quick look at my stats reveals a quite varied level of reading during that time as per below:

2005 - 6 YA novels read
2006 - 4 YA novels read
2007 - 8 YA novels read
2008 - 7 YA novels read
2009 - 12 (so far) YA novels read

I expect the number for 2009 to end up being much higher as just recently I have started reading four YA series - the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, the Attolia series by Megan Whalen Turner, the House of Night series by PC Cast and Kristin Cast and most recently The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins - and I definitely intend to keep reading all of those series as soon as I can.

Over the last few years some of the books I have read include the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series by Ann Brashares, the first two books in the His Dark Materials trilogy (one day I will read the third one), the Twilight books (of course), as well as the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix.

Whilst I read across a few different genres most of the time, my main genres are really historical fiction and romance, with some fantasy and mystery thrown in there. One thing I find interesting is that almost all the YA books that I have read are fantasy. I get that there isn't much straight YA romance novels, and to be honest I am not sure I would want to read them even if there were, but it does surprise me a little to see how little historical fiction YA I have read. As for mystery, are there even YA mysteries around?

So why do I seem to enjoy reading YA fantasy in particular so much? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy well written adult fantasy (you know what I mean), but I must confess that my preferred fantasy settings are ones that aren't too far from the world we live in so while I need some world building, I don't need huge amounts. I am far more interested in the relationships between the characters and I think that is something that a lot of YA books do really well. The friendships between the characters, the discovery of the new emotions associated with young love and trying to discern a way through those emotions in an adult world are all

If my lack of historical fiction YA is one area that I am lacking in, then the other is really Australian authors. Over the last four years I have read seven YA books by Australian authors. That doesn't sound that bad, until you realise that six of those seven books were actually written by one author, and are all part of one series (Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix).

One example that I do have of a book by an Australian author, with a historical setting is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Despite the fact that I really enjoyed this book when I read it, I still haven't managed to read more from this local author. I really should rectify that! In the meantime, in honour of YA Appreciation month, I will repost my review of The Book Thief in the next few hours.

So, I am looking for recommendations for two different types of YA books, the first being YA historical fiction and the second being YA written by Australian authors. Are there any absolutely must read YA novels out there that I haven't mentioned?

I look forward to hearing everybody's recommendations!

Sometimes the little things don't matter

It was my intention to come home tonight and write up a post about my card swap cards for this month. It would have been a post about how I couldn't think of any half decent ideas for the theme (men are always really hard to make cards for), and then about how the theme that I had chosen didn't really come together. Then there was the part about how hard it is to stamp on vellum and just generally how the card was really hard work.

That post will probably still happen in the next few days, but to be honest, this minor issue has been put into a more realistic perspective today. This morning one of my work colleagues was killed in a motorcycle accident. He was someone who I dealt with regularly in the course of my role, and I am, well, I guess shell shocked is the best description I can give. There will be many more people who were closer to him, friends, family, wife and daughters who will be feeling this sudden loss so much more than I can even begin to fathom.

Rest peacefully my friend.

Library Loot!

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and me that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

I am feeling a little impatient with my library at the moment! I mentioned in my last post that I was a bit disappointed that my library didn't have the third book in the Thief books by Megan Whalen Turner on the catalogue yet. Today I finished reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, another YA book, and I really, really enjoyed it. The next step after finishing a book is to look up the library catalogue for the next book in the series. Uh-oh! No Catching Fire! Admittedly Catching Fire isn't released yet, but still! I want to read it, and I want to be able to request it right now!

Now that I have had my little tantrum *grin* here's my library loot for this week!







City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare - after enjoying the first book in the series I had to pick up the sequel as soon as I can.











Grave Peril by Jim Butcher - I don't know how many times I have borrowed this book from the library before, but I really do want to read it. Maybe this time!











Painting Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis - there has been quite a lot of chatter about this author on the Historical Fiction blog circuit as a result of the recent release of her latest book, The Devil's Queen. Seeing all those posts reminded me that I actually still hadn't read the previous book either yet!






So how about you? What books did you get out of the library this week? Be sure to add your link to Mr Linky so we can all check out your hauls.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I've read a number of YA books over the last few weeks, and my teaser today comes from another one. I am currently reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and I am really enjoying it. My teaser comes from page 178:

Then I hear the legendary announcer, Claudius Templesmith, as his voice booms all around me.



"Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!"

I did have one problem today in relation to books. I finished The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner (also a YA novel) and I was all very excited to request the next book from the library but they don't have it yet! Oh my goodness, what is a girl to do!

My weekends in pictures

I was going to try to only do this post in pictures to try and show what I have been up to over the last couple of weekends, but you know, it really isn't possible for me to do, so there are going to be words as well!

Last weekend I drove down past the other side of the city to a place called the Red Hill Estate winery for the 40th birthday celebrations of a friend. The views were fantastic, the food was fantastic, including a fantastic piece of pork (yum!), the wine was good and the company was good too!

One of the things that they had going on was a Barrel Art contest. I don't particularly like being in photos, so I don't often take photos with people in either, but I thought that these were quite fun so took some of these with my phone camera. Click on the images to see clearer and larger images. Some of these were incredibly details. For example the first one was a whole whimsical little arrangement including the frog you can see.








After this day out on Sunday we wandered around the city with new friends, and ended up having an all chocolate afternoon tea. Yum! Is it any wonder that I have completely gone off the diet for the last week. I really need to get back on the diet band wagon...tomorrow.

Yesterday I went with a friend to experience some more culture (pronounced Kulcha amongst my friends) and saw the Salvador Dali exhibition which is showing here at the moment which is called Liquid Desire.



I had seen some Dali pieces before, but I don't think that I had ever realised how much he did in so many different mediums, from fashion and jewellery, to movies and cartoons and different styles of art.

Like so many of these really big exhibitions, there were loads of people around but I am really glad we went. After a long lunch, we went back to the gallery and visited another couple of rooms. One was called Persuasion: Fashion in the Age of Jane Austen . We stopped by and had a look at some of the displays on ancient items, but by that time we were pretty much galleried out! There are still lots of the permanent exhibits there that I would like to see eventually.

I was meant to be going to the museum yesterday but decided that I needed to be a home for just a while. So what did I end up doing then. Playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook! I just can't play only a couple of games on that thing. Talk about time wasting, although it is a good accompaniment to kind of watching the cricket!

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and me that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

A couple of posts ago I worked out what proportion of my last twenty reads had come from the library. It turned out to be 85% which is quite a high percentage I think. Then I looked at how many of my reads for the year had come from there and the percentage was only a fraction lower at 81%. Whilst it's not surprising as such it was interested to see what the final percentage was!

This week I picked up the following books from the library. The good thing this week is no reloot! I have never borrowed any of these books before!





An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson - Danielle was talking about this book a couple of weeks ago. The main reason I added it to my list is that it features author Josephine Tey as a character. I have only read one of her books but I really liked that book.








Untamed by PC Cast and Kristin Cast - Next book in the House of Night series.













The Golden One by Elizabeth Peters - Next book in the Amelia Peabody series.















The Food of Love by Anthony Capella - I really enjoyed The Wedding Officer when I read it a couple of weeks ago so now I am on a quest to read all of Anthony Capella's books.











The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein - I first added this book to my TBR list when someone posted about the book back in April last year. It has taken this long for me to get the book. I hope it was worth the wait!





I think that the Mr Linky will be up at Eva's this week I presume. It is isn't up in the morning, I will add it into this post later.

Edited to add Mr Linky

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

For the second week in a row my teaser comes from an Elizabeth Peters book. Whereas last week's was from one of the Amelia Peabody books, this week's teaser comes from page 177 of Night Train to Memphis which is the fifth book in the Vicky Bliss series.

He was referring to Jane Austen, but none of the others caught the allusion, or its implications. Nasty old Aunt Norris in Mansfield Park always had a spare room because she never invited anyone to stay with her.

Last twenty books

I saw this meme over at Mysteries in Paradise, and thought it might be fun to do. Kerrie saw it at Kittling Books, and Cathy is the one who came up with this fun image to go with the meme. Now that I have had a bit of a look at where my last reads have come from it's not actually that interesting! Never mind, I will share it anyway.

So the idea is to share where your last twenty reads came from. Did you buy them new from a bookstore, did you receive a review copy, or from the author directly? Maybe you received some of the books as part of blog tour?

My last twenty read are as follows:

Betrayed by PC Cast and Kristin Cast (Library)
The Bridegroom by Linda Lael Miller (Review copy from publisher)
A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander (Library)
Made to be Broken by Kelley Armstrong (Library)
A Hollow Crown by Helen Hollick (Library)
The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley (Library)
Sin and Scandal in England by Melody Thomas (Library)
The French Mistress by Susan Holloway Scott (ARC from author)
Hugh and Bess by Susan Higginbotham (Review copy from publisher)
Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas (Library)
The Dream Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon (Library)
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee (Library)
Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourn (Library)
Jewels of the Sun by Nora Roberts (Library)
Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich (Library)
The Dark Rose by Cynthia Harrod Eagles (Library)
Chosen by P C Cast and Kristin Cast (Library)
An Affair Before Christmas by Eloisa James (Library)
Lord of the Silent by Elizabeth Peters (Library)
The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella (Library)

So based on this selection, 85% of my reads come from the library. Just because I was interested I went back to look at all the books that I have read this year and found that this is actually not all that far off for the year. So far this year just over 81% of my reads have come from the library.

What would I do without my local library?

Actually, during the same time that it has taken me to read the above books, I have acquired 19 books but haven't read any of them. Scary! Of those books, 11 were books that I bought, 5 are review books and the remaining 3 are books that I won in contests. Without my local library I might actually get some of these books read!

Hugh and Bess by Susan Higginbotham

When forced to marry thirty two year old Hugh le Despenser, the son and grandson of disgraced traitors, young Bess de Montacute is appalled at his less-than-desirable past. Meanwhile, Hugh must give up the woman he really loves in order to marry the reluctant Bess. Hugh and Bess must work to discover whether true love can flourish within the confines of an arranged marriage...

Just as their love begins to grow, Hugh and Bess must surmount the trials of an unchangeable past, war, and disloyalty. But can they overcome the pestilence, an unrelenting, indiscriminate plague that leaves only death in its wake?

I am sure that I am not the only reader around who has authors that they have been meaning to read for a while but it just hasn't happened. For me, Susan Higginbotham is one of those authors. I can not tell you how long I had Susan's first book sitting on my nightstand unread, until I finally decided to clear off the nightand and reshelve the pile that was there. The big question for me now is not so much why, because I know that it is because I kept on having other books get in the way, but rather how can I reorganise my reading calendar so that I can now read The Traitor's Wife sooner rather than later?

When young Bess de Montacute finds out she is to be married again, she is not happy. At fourteen she is already a widow, having been married to a young boy who died before they truly began married life. She doesn't want to be a wife again especially to Hugh le Despenser. Not only is he significantly older than her, but he also comes from a line of le Despenser men who have been found to be traitors in the past and therefore his family doesn't have the best name. The current Hugh le Despenser is however loyal through and through to the current king.

It's fair to say that Hugh is also not overly thrilled when the King suggests this match but given how hard he has worked at trying to redeem the family name he decides to go ahead with the betrothal, even though it means giving up the woman that he loves - a woman who would not be a suitable wife for a man of his stature.

Hugh and Bess struggle through their early days of married life, feeling their way through a veritable minefield of emotions, not least of all resentment and loneliness, but over time they come to find a bond of love much stronger than either could have imagined possible.

One of the highlights of this novel for me was the dialogue between the characters, especially between Bess and her friends - relaxed and almost gossipy, but above all dialogue that feels like it would really happy between young girls such as those featured in the book. I found it interesting to contrast the fates of two young girls who had very different experiences of arranged marriages. I was also impressed with the way that Higginbotham chose to end this book. Given the historical facts, it could have been possible to end the book much earlier, and much more abruptly than she did, and I appreciated the extra few pages that sets up a very hopeful ending.

If you want to read accessible historical fiction or perhaps a lovely romantic novel with a historical setting, then this is certainly a book to pick up and enjoy

Now I am off to find out which bookshelf The Traitor's Wife is on.

Thanks to Sourcebooks for sending me a review copy of this book. This post today is part of the blog tour organised to celebrate the release of this book through Sourcebooks. Other stops on the tour are as below:

Musings of a Bibliophile (7/28)
Passages to the Past (8/1)
My Friend Amy (8/1)
Reading Adventures (8/2)
Jennifer's Random Musings (8/2)
Peeking Between the Pages (8/3)
Historical Novels.info (8/3)
Grace's Book Blog (8/4)
Historical Tapestry (8/5)
Mrs. Magoo Reads (8/5)
Historical Fiction (8/6)
Jenn's Bookshelf (8/6)
The Tome Traveller's Weblog (8/7)
Beatrice.com (8/8)
Book Addiction (8/9)
Steven Till (8/10)
Medieval Bookworm (8/11)
Carla Nayland (8/11)
The Literate Housewife Review (8/12)
Diary of an Eccentric (8/13)
Bookfoolery and Babble (8/14)

July 2009 Reading Update

Not a bad reading month this month. The number of books read was down a little, and I am not really sure why, but overall I have been reading less all year so that just continues the trend.

The books I did read this month were:

Hugh and Bess by Susan Higginbotham 4/5
Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas 4.5/5
The Dream Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon 4/5
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee 4/5
Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourn 4.5/5
Jewels of the Sun by Nora Roberts 4.5/5
Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich 4/5
The Dark Rose by Cynthia Harrod Eagles 4.5/5
Chosen by P C Cast and Kristin Cast 4/5
An Affair Before Christmas by Eloisa James 4/5
Lord of the Silent by Elizabeth Peters 4.5/5
The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella 4.5/5

Of the challenges that I have not yet completed this year, I didn't make any progress on the Art History reading challenge, but I have borrowed a couple of books that will fit the theme, so hopefully in the next couple of months I will make some progress.

I read two books this month for the War Through the Generations challenge - The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee and The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella. I think I have one more book to read to complete this challenge.

At this point I have read 86 books that I started this year and so not long to go before I finish the 100+ reading challenge.

This month I joined in the Period Drama Challenge, which isn't about reading at all, but rather watching period dramas. Last night I watched the last quarter of North and South (again) so now I will probably watch the whole thing again and then that will be one down for that challenge as well.

I did mention last month that I was thinking about joining a couple more challenges, and now I am officially joining both the Harry Potter reading challenge. Whilst I have read the first four books in the Harry Potter series, I didn't ever get around to reading the last three. My brother is supposed to be giving me the audio version as read by Stephen Fry so I will most likely listen to that in order to complete this challenge.

The other challenge that I am signing up for is the Reliquiae Challenge because I really can't resist paranormal books! I am going for the highest level (Haunted Nights). My first three books are going to be Kissing Sin by Keri Arthur, Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris and City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. I will work out the other three books in due course.

Finally, a big thank you to Gina from Book Dragon who has awarded me the Kreativ Blogger award. Thanks Gina!

Come in Spinner

In the last cardmaking post I did I mentioned that I was trying out some new techniques, one of them involving a new to me product called Twinkling H2Os. Because I enjoy just sitting there painting across the page with the watercolours, I have numerous backgrounds created mostly in a similar shade to the ones that you see here, but also a couple of others. When I was at Paperific I also bought a new stamp featuring a stylised lady made by an Australian company called Eclectic Images. They have quite a few more of these ladies, and I think I am going to have to purchase some of them before too much longer. Once I had my background, I stamped and embossed the lady and then coloured her in using more Twinkling H2Os. At first this was just a play around, but I think it looks good with the two ladies on it. I am pretty pleased with the final effect, and am thinking that I am going to try and make more lady cards and/or bookmarks. To aid with this I just HAD to go and buy more colours yesterday!



I did try and create a colour chart of the different colours that I now own, but given that I have now bought more I need to add those. I just love that you can different depth in the shades from a single colour, and use them both for backgrounds and for colouring. The fact that you get a lovely shimmery effect doesn't hurt either!

The second card was inspired by one of the monthly card swap cards that I received last month - a spinner card!



A friend of mine is turning 40 this week. She is a very girlie girl who loves pink and Cosmo cocktails, so my aim was to incorporate those two aspects into one card. I used the same technique as I did with the dragonflies. You start by stamping your image using Perfect Medium or Versamark, and then sprinkling hot set glue powder over the image. You then use your heating tool to melt the powder and sprinkle your glitter over the now melted glue. By heating again with the heating tool you cause the glue to set, meaning that the glitter is set into the glue and therefore won't just wipe off the card in the future. The paper that I used is from Alison Ellis Designs as is the glitter.

I've put in an order for some really small word stamps so that in future I would be able to stamp the Happy Birthday in, but for now I had to write it. I think I am going to have to order this cocktail stamp as well. At the moment I am just borrowing it from a friend.

The neat thing about this card is that the cocktail spins. It is a bit difficult to show that in still photos so I took a few seconds of video with my phone to show it in action. It isn't exactly easy to get a good shot when you are the person holding both the camera and the object, but hopefully you will get the idea!



I feel as though I need to give you all fair warning that you are going to see various incarnations of these cards a few more times, because I am pretty enamoured of them! In my mind I am seeing spinning dragonflies amongst other things! I do love that dragonfly stamp that I used last time.

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and me that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

It was a very exciting week for me last week. I got my first ever Inter Library Loan (ILL)! I actually didn't think I would get it because when I was filling in the online request it asked how much I was willing to pay and it said that the maximum cost could be up to almost $20 which I thought was a bit steep, but instead of filling it in I just left it blank. I have to say though that I was a bit surprised when I picked the book up from my library as they add a cover to it. It made me laugh a little because you can't even tell which book it is underneath the cover. It's very green!



Eva was supposed to be back from holidays last week, but there hasn't been a new post from her yet, so if there is no Mr Linky up by the time I get up on Thursday I will add one to this post.

My loot this week:




Honolulu by Alan Brennert - I have been wanting to read this author's first book, Moloka'i for ages, so when I saw that this book had been added to the catalogue I requested it.











Tears of the Moon by Nora Roberts - I read the first book in this trilogy, Jewels of the Sun, a couple of weeks ago.












The Royal Harlot by Susan Holloway Scott - Normally I don't read books out of order, but I have read the third book in this series, The French Mistress, not too long ago. Now I am going back to the beginning to work my way through. This is the book that is hidden underneath the green ILL cover.








Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris - As soon as I see the next Sookie Stackhouse book has been added to the library catalogue I request it. I was a bit slow this time, but it has finally come in!












Annette Vallon by James Tipton - One thing I don't do very often at the library is browse, but the other night I was walking past the end shelves where they display books and this one caught my eye.











The Princeling by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - the next book in the Morland Dynasty series of books. The cover I had is from about 30 years ago and is fabulous, but for the time being I will use this one. I will find the real one eventually though.






Only one reloot this week:






Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin - the third book in the Adelia series of medieval mysteries.








Edited to add Mr Linky.