Teaser Tuesday: Shadowfae by Erica Hayes

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 have mentioned before that when I participate in Teaser Tuesday my normal process is to open the book, skim through to find a teaser and if nothing jumps out then I will flick through some pages and try again until I find something interesting. Every now and again, I specifically pick something out. This week is a specific week!

My teaser this week comes from page 21 of Shadowfae by Erica Hayes. First I will share the teaser and then I will tell you why I chose this specific section:

Or they had, until DiLuca started seducing them away, and the whisper in Carlton was that a war was brewing, a clash of brass and blood to rival anything we'd seen in the nineties. But by nature, the fae lived on the edge of chaos, and it was to be expected that one or two would turn up dead every so often.

Erica Hayes, the author of Shadowfae is an Australian, and she has chosen to set this book in Melbourne, which is where I live. There are numerous mentions of Melbourne landmarks in the book, and as I have been reading the book I am wondering if maybe I need to open my eyes to the possibilities of otherworld happenings going on around me, because obviously Erica Hayes sees them, as well as Keri Arthur whose Riley Jensen series is set in Melbourne. It seems that I really need to be more observant around Carlton when I go there next!

The most interesting thing about that passage is a little kernel of information that is in that first line that I don't know would mean anything much to non Aussies who read it. Yep, there was a war in the 90s in Melbourne - a gangland war. To most Australian readers, that would pretty much instantly bring to mind the gangland killings which were taking place in Melbourne in the nineties, with numerous underworld identities being killed, sometimes in broad daylight and in public. This gangland war provided the material for a book called Leadbelly, which in turn was turned into a TV series that was one of the most successful Australian productions in years called Underbelly.

Personally, I never watched Underbelly, basically because I don't watch a lot of TV but also because I felt that in many it glamorised the gangland lifestyle, but it is hard to miss the Underbelly phenomenon in Australian society, and especially particularly in Melbourne.

Just for something a little different I thought I might put up some pictures of some of the locations talked about in the book -

Eureka Tower - when it opened the Eureka Tower was the tallest residential building in the world. Not sure if that is still the case or not! Scene of pretty key party in Shadowfae

(Image from Wikipedia)

This is how I see Carlton! A great place to sit outside, drink coffee and eat, especially on a balmy summer night. Apparently, I need to look closer to see the vampires, werewolves, incubus, succubus and fae hangouts!

The Victorian Art Centre spire - mentioned quite a few times as a sight through the books. There is an awesome craft markets right near here on Sundays. Not sure that Jade, the main female character, and resident succubus would have been there, but I like it!

Bravo Mr William Shakespeare presented by Marcia Williams

The Globe Theatre is delighted to announce a new season of Mr. William Shakespeare's plays. Prithee take your places once more for a performance of seven of the Bard's finest plays. See As You Like It, Antony and Cleopatra, Richard III, Twelfth Night, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing - each brilliantly presented in dramatic comic-strip form, including Mr. Shakespeare's own dialogue and the riotous remarks of the audience. Bravo!

On Sunday I was looking at my library account when I realised that I have a bit of a problem. I can check out four more books on my library card, I have six books waiting to be picked up with two more on the way, and I only had one item ready to take back. Uh-oh. A quick look at my shelves to see if I had anything I could read quickly reminded me that I had this book.

I can't remember whose blog I saw it on originally (normally I write these things down, but didn't this time), but Marcia Williams originally came to my attention when someone posted about her book Archie's War, which is a scrapbook style diary from the perspective of 10 year old Archie Albright. A quick look at the library catalogue did reveal that they didn't have that book on the shelves, but they did have some of the author's other books so I thought I would give one a go!

This book is a collection of 7 of Shakespeare's plays retold in cartoon format. The way that the author has done this is quite clever. The cartoons characters speak actual lines from the plays, whilst the text boxes under the cartoons explain the story, and then along the sides and bottom of each page, you have the unruly crowd commenting. They might be commenting on the story of the play, or it could be a societal comment, or it could be good old fashioned play on words. The commentary from the crowd is quite interesting as well, as the people along the bottom of the page are the lower classes of society with the class of the crowd gradually getting higher up the side of the pages. There are comments about the kind of food that would have been at the theatre, and the Puritans who discouraged attendance and about the Plague. There are cameo appearances by Elizabeth I, and Shakespeare himself, along with a couple of Marlowe and Bacon jokes thrown in for good measure.

As an adult, I really enjoyed this book. The book is aimed at Grade 3 to Grade 6 (so about 9-12), and I am not sure how well it would work. The pages are very busy, and whether they will understand the abbreviated versions of plays like Richard II and King Lear is debatable, but the illustrations are fun and there is plenty of humour which should help as well. I think that my favourite was probably Much Ado About Nothing, but that may well be because that is the play that I am most familiar with.

If you would like to get some idea of the types of illustrations that the author uses, then check out Marcia William's website.

When I picked this book up on Sunday afternoon, I was expecting that this was a book that I would be able to whiz through in a few minutes, but I found myself spending a lot of time on each page reading all the little comments, and looking at all the very detailed illustrations. It was a fun way to spend an hour or so.

Rating 4/5

In the spirit of Bloggiesta

The Saturday Network

Have you heard about Jenn from Books At Midnight's fabulous blog networking project, called The Saturday Network. The idea is that you leave your link in the comments and the person after you comes and leave a comment on your blog, and of course, you comment on the person above you. Sounds like a fun way to find new blogs!

2010 Reading Resolutions

So, I have looked back at my year in 2009. Now it is time to look forward.

I didn't realise that I hadn't set any reading goals in 2009. That was something I normally do, but obviously either didn't want to last January or never got around to it. The thing is, my goals remain pretty constant most years. They generally involve reading a certain number of books, reading more Australian authors, and that at least some of the books I read should be books that I already own but haven't read yet. This year isn't all that different.

Read 125 books -  Over the last few years this number has consistently reduced. In 2006 and 2007 I aimed for 200 books. In 2007 I said that this was a reduced amount because I needed to get a new job. In 2008 I aimed for 150 books because I really, REALLY needed to get a new job! This year, I finally have the new job, and because of reduced commuting time, I have much less reading time, so the number of books I am aiming to read has dropped again.

Read 10 books that I owned as at 31 December 2009 - Every year I read less books that I own than come into my house. This is my attempt to try to make sure that I read at least a few that have been on my shelves for a while.

Reading Australian authors - Every year I look at my list of reads and think, gosh, I don't read enough Australian authors. This year I am aiming to read at least 10 books by Australian authors. I also joined in the Australian Authors Challenge to try and help me meet this goal.

Read some Jane Austen - A couple of years ago I aimed to read Dorothy Dunnett, and didn't manage to even crack open a book, and still haven't in fact. This year, I intend to rectify what I feel is a major gap in my reading. I have never read anything by Jane Austen. I have watched a couple of the adaptations that are around and liked them, so we will see how we go with reading some of her books.

Perpetual Challenges - Last year, one thing that I didn't do very well at all is read for the perpetual challenges that I am signed up for like The Pulitzer Project, the Orange Prize Project, and the Complete Booker. This year I would like to read at least one book for each of these, if not more.

Review more - Over the last couple of years I have allowed myself to get very lazy about writing reviews of the books I read. I still start a blog post for every book, but not enough of them see light of day! This year, I am going to try to write at least one review a week, preferably more. Need to get back into the habit. I know that that really isn't many, but I do also want to be a no guilt blogger as well, because at the end of the day blogging is supposed to enrich our lives and be fun and not something that we are slave to. Just looking at this one though, I haven't written a review yet this year! Gah...already behind! LOL.

So, that's it. My reading resolutions for this year.

Bloggiesta Mini Challenge Update - the real ones this time!

So let's start again shall we?

Luckily I did manage to get a couple of the right mini challenges in my previous posts. Just a couple mind.

The first mini challenge for this Bloggiesta is being hosted by Rebecca from The Book Lady's Blog and the idea is to write some goals for 2010. As I mentioned before, I did have a goals post half written, so I have now finished that off, and it will be posted some time today.

The second challenge is being hosted by Pam from MotherReader, and is a whole challenge by itself! The idea is to comment on at least 5 book blogs each day for the next five weeks. Each Thursday participants are to post on their progress. Sounds like fun doesn't it!

Danielle from There's a Book is encouraging us all to cheat, or perhaps it should be use our time more wisely by using templates for those posts that we write regularly. For my regular meme posts like Library Loot and Teaser Tuesday I tend to copy and paste from last week's post each time which works for me, but there are definitely some good ideas in terms of things like passwords and links for all the different networking sites that we all get connected via. Definitely worth checking out. This challenge has also encouraged me to look at how I can use Google docs a bit better, especially for things like the Virtual Advent tour and keeping up with when review books are due to be read by.

Actually, just before I went to bed last night I got all inspired about how I could use Google Docs to assist me with Library Loot, with the Terry Pratchett Challenge and with Historical Tapestry's ABC of Historical Fiction, and then there was something else, but I can't remember what it was! There's a reason you should write things down instead of relying on memory, especially at my age! **wink** It will come to me I am sure. There is a distinct danger that I could get a bit obsessed with these lists!


Pam from Bookalicio.us has challenged us to add a copyright statement to our blog feeds to help prevent stolen content which I have now done. Now my feed should have the following statement as part of it.

This post was originally posted by Marg from ReadingAdventures. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Copyright 2005-2010.

The next more-than-mini challenge is hosted by Beth from BethFishReads, and is encouraging us to use labels on our posts. I love my labels, but have far too many of them!  I try to have labels for authors, for genres, for series, some for location if I read a lot of books set there (for example Russia or Italy), memes, plus a couple of more generic ones like music or life to cover those occasions when I post about something other than books. One of the things I had done was having separate labels for challenges that have run for a number of years and I need to figure out whether that really works. At the moment it means that I do have multiple labels for the same types of posts. For example for the Chunkster Challenge, at the moment I have Chunkster Challenge 2008, Chunkster Challenge 2009 and Chunkster Challenge 2010 as labels. Would it be more meaningful to just have one Chunkster Challenge label instead?   For some challenges, I don't think that would work. For example I don't think it would work for the Pub 2009 and Pub 2010 challenge. For the Chunkster Challenge, I think that if someone was looking for a chunkster it wouldn't matter when it was read, but if someone looked at the Pub 2010 label they might not want to read about a book published a couple of years before.


I also have a few labels which are for the same thing but just were spelt a little differently, e.g. I have some books labelled 'mystery' and others 'mysteries' so I have fixed those.

If you are just going to start with labels, I would encourage you to think about a couple of things - how many labels do you want to end up with and what your aim for them is. If you want a limited number of labels then you may choose to have one label for all author names A-L and M-Z for example. If you are going to do that, is there going to be another way for people to find reviews about specific authors like an index of reads. At the end of the day, I suspect that the person that uses the labels on my blog the most is me, so make sure that whatever strategy you choose to implement, make sure it is one that works for you!

Just a comment on searches. If you are on a Blogger blog, the search facility provided by Blogger is actually pretty good, so if you don't have a search box on your blog, think about either adding a search widget that is in a prominent place on your blog, or use the generic blogger one. Either way, it is useful to have some way for your reader to have a search box if they are looking for something specific.

Jackie from Farm Lane Books is hosting a mini-challenge to encourage us to back up our blogs. A long time ago I had a couple of panicky moments when things didn't quite look right on my blog and I thought I had lost some content. Just looking at my computer thought it appears as though the last time I did do a backup was a year ago! Whoops. I have now backed up as at today.

Karin from Karin's Book Nook is sending us on a dead link hunt. This is something that I hadn't really thought about doing before, so I am currently using the free link checker at Deadlinks.com to see how many I have. Given that I have been blogging for quite a long time now, I am sure there are some. I think it is going to take me a week to go through the list of links. I suspect a lot of them are for comments by bloggers who no longer are around, so not sure how I am going to be able to fix a lot of those.

The next mini challenge is hosted by Chelle from Tempting Persephone and asks you to put your best couple of posts forward so that they are in the spotlight! I was going to sit this one out. I mean how many more times can I post my review of The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley without it becoming boring. Actually, this might be a good time to mention that I am participating in the 45th Bookworms Carnival which is being hosted by Cathrin from Secret Dreamworld of a Bookaholic. The theme was series, and the post that I submitted was my recent reviews of Conn Iggulden's Conqueror series.

Moving on, the next mini-challenge is hosted by Kristin from Bookworming in the 21st century and is designed to provide a forum for people to talk about blogging, and maybe mentoring. I am really going to sit this one out, mainly only because I already have far too many forums and groups that I don't visit on a regular enough basis!

The final mini-challenge is hosted by Jenn's Bookshelves and encourages you to plan 10 post ideas! I am going to pass on this one as well. I don't really have problems coming up with post ideas, but I do have trouble getting from the idea to actually posting so I am going to concentrate on that aspect for some of the day today.

So, there are my mini challenges for today. The rest of the day I plan to write a review or two, write a post for the Terry Pratchett challenge I am hosting, create some Google Docs (going to become addicted to these I suspect), oh, and actually do some housework.

Whoops!

Seems I have been doing a mix of the new and the old mini challenges for Bloggiesta!

Oh well, some of those needed doing anyway! I did wonder that some of the blog posts are old. Now I know why!

Will now have to go and do some of the newer mini challenges.

Bloggiesta Mini Challenge Update #2

Lynn from Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile encourages us to sign up to a blog directory. I am signed up to a number of blog directories already, but I am going to see if I can find at least one that is new and relevant.

Rebecca from The Book Lady's Blog asks us to set goals for 2010. I actually had a reading resolutions post started, so I just had to actually finish it off. I am planning to post it early on Sunday morning my time.

Jen from Devourer of Books has blogged about the importance of updating key pages on your blog. I am going to sit this mini challenge out at this time, because that links in with something that is going to be happening on my blog soon.

Trish from Hey Lady, Watcha Reading shows us how to get a gravatar and a favicon. I have had a gravatar for a while now, but never did get around to working out exactly how to install a favicon. Again, this is something that I am going to do a bit later. The gravatar that I am using at the moment is this guy close up of this guy.

Andrea from Book Blather is helping us with links to lots of handy tips and tutorials. I am thinking I am going to save this one until I am a bit more awake in the morning.

The last mini challenge is hosted by Bookish Ruth, and it involves grading your website through Website Grader. I did this last year as well, and it seems that my rating is about the same, which is good news I think!



While I have done Website Grader before, I hadn't gone through Blog Grader before, which was interesting because I got a much lower score on that one. Most of the suggestion they had on both reports were around Meta tags and descriptions, so that is something I need to work on I think, on not using a .blogspot.com web address.

Bloggiesta update #1 and a few mini challenges

I have actually managed to move on from thinking about things, to actually doing things. Not huge things, but something at least! So what is it that I have done? Since the last update? Well, apart from tried to get the boy to hurry up and finish his jobs, and cleaning the kitchen, I managed to clean up my blogroll a little. Over the last couple of weeks I had already tidied up my sidebars a bit, and I do have some ideas for later, but it's a start.

The other thing I have done isn't exactly for Bloggiesta, but it is kind of related. I gave my computer desk and the area surrounding it a thorough clean, moving some of those cords so they aren't so visible, given everything a good clean, putting things away. There's still a little left to do, but for the most part, the view from here looks pretty good right now! I also reorganised my TBR shelves, so that now I can just turn my head and see all the books I have been seen for review and haven't read yet. Hello guilty conscience!

I am managing to multi-task whilst participating in Bloggiesta, and cleaning, but listening to Hunted by P C Cast and Kristin Cast. It is unfortunate that my son just happens to walk in every time there is a swear word (or so it seems), and is shocked! He likes to pretend that he doesn't swear with his friend
I am now working my way through some of the mini challenges:

Rebecca from The Book Lady's Blog is hosting a mini challenge about cleaning out your feed readers. I am planning to do this a bit later tonight when I watch TV.

Beth from BethFishReads is asking us to write an opinion post or a list post, and save it for a later date! I will have to give this one a bit of thought I think.

Jill from Fizzy Thoughts is encouraging us to find some new blogs and comment on them! She even wants meaningful comments! What's that about? **grins** I am planning to work on this one in the morning.

Emily from Emily's Reading Room has details about how to set up a Google Alert for your blog. I actually did this for my blog during the last Bloggiesta for both my blog, and for Historical Tapestry. I also have one set up for the phrase 'Historical Fiction Author'. I do think that the Google Alert works really well, as long as you don't have a blog name that has some common words in, like Reading and Adventures, because a lot of people use those two words in posts! Actually, this isn't the first time today that having such common words has been a little problematic. Earlier I mentioned that I am thinking about getting a domain name. It turns out that if I was to try to obtain readingadventures.com it would cost me more than $5000AU. A little more expensive than I had allowed for! I am assured that this is because the two words in my blog title are very common words.

Deborah from Books, Movies, and Chinese Food is asking us to develop an Elevator Pitch for our blog.  I have always been pretty happy with the first sentence of my About Me section, although my reading has changed a little since I originally wrote it:

My adventures through time and place, all without leaving the comfort of home. Reading is what I do to relax and escape. I enjoy lots of genres but mainly Historical Fiction, Romance, Cozy Mysteries and Young Adult fiction.

I think I will tweak it a little to read:

My adventures through time and place, all without leaving the pages of my book. Reading is what I do to relax and escape, and talking about reading is my favourite hobby. You might find me immersed in historical fiction or romance, young adult, a mystery or a fantasy, but you can be sure that whereever I am, I will have a book with me!

 Off to work on more mini challenges.

Bloggiesta

You probably can't really tell from looking at my blog, but I am participating in Bloggiesta this weekend. So far, that consists of lots of chatting on Twitter, and lots of thinking about things! Not a lot of action.

Some of the things I am thinking about, and to be honest, have been for a while:

What to do about my blogroll - There has to be a more effective way to highlight the blogs that I like to visit, (and who like to visit me). Until I do decide what to do about this, I am thinking about doing a bit of clean up on the links that are currently there.

My index of reads - At the moment, I have a separate blog where I keep links to all of my reviews, which I originally set up years ago. What I am thinking about instead is to have a tab on this blog. I am assuming that would mean transferring them

About me - Also thinking about a separate About me Tab. Not that I have a lot of extra info to add. Maybe I need to think about that content too.

Badges etc - At the moment Facebook, and Twitter badges aren't working for me and I have no idea why, so I am thinking about fixing those!

Domain names - Have been thinking about getting a domain name. Readingadventures.com is out of the question because it will cost too much, so I am playing around with a few different alternatives to see if I can come up with something a little more viable.


I can't really do some of the major changes at this time, because I am working on something that would mean that I would have to redo it all, but at least I am doing the thinking now right?

So, some questions. I had a few people talk about why a domain name is better than a .blogspot address. The main reasons given were that it looks more professional, is more fun, and gives more control. Anyone have any more reasons for or against to add?

And, a question on Tabs. Say, for example, I wanted to have a separate page for Library Loot (I don't it's just an example) posts, do you have to do anything different when you post to get those posts to show on the relevant tab page? And, do you think that is a good idea or a bad idea. I guess it really caters for those people who use some kind of feed reader as anyone who uses direct links probably wouldn't see it. Makes it sound like not such a good idea.

Lord of the Rings Readalong: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

There are times that I obliviously wander through life, not noticing the things that are going on around me. Or perhaps it is that at the time I did notice it, but didn't think I would be able to participate. Whatever the case actually was, apparently as long ago as November, there were conversation happening on Twitter and on blogs about a Lord of the Rings readalong starting in January, and I never noticed...until a couple of days ago, when suddenly I needed, yes, NEEDED, to reread The Hobbit. It must have been fated because I walked into my lounge room, stood in front of the bookshelf, and there was the book. Found it without even trying! And now that I am nearly finished reading it, have to say that it is pretty much the perfect read for me at the moment!

I first read The Hobbit in either year 8 or year 9 - the first couple of years of high school anyway. I remember liking it a lot at the time, but my overwhelming memory is the title page that I did for the book report. Now, I am pretty sure I have said before that I am not an artist, and never have been. My friends would turn in these super artistic title pages with gorgeous colours, lettering and illustrations, but that really was never my strong point. If you wanted to talk about what was in the report in terms of content, then I was up there for sure, but presentation...not so much.

My title page had my idea of what the hill that Bilbo Baggin's hobbit hole was built into, with a path leading to his door. I guess in concept it was something similar to the header over at Kaye's blog, The Road Goes Ever On, but there was a mile wide gap in terms of execution!

If you had of asked me, I would have sworn that the edition that I have in my book collection was the one that I had read that first time, but having a look at the details, that doesn't appear to be the case given that I read the book in either 1983 or 1984, and the edition that I am now reading was published in 1987. You can see that it is a book that has been read a few times. The spine is a little damaged, there is some sticky tape holding the spine together, so even just the experience of reading it again has been something of a trip down memory lane without even reading any of the words.

I did really struggle to find an image showing the cover that I am reading, but thankfully Violet from Still Life With Books came to the rescue! There are so many different covers out there! The only difference between this image and my cover is that at the very bottom it says 'The Hobbit 50th Anniversary'.

In the introductory post, Eva, who is hosting the discussion for The Hobbit, asked several discussion questions to get things going.

When did you first hear of The Hobbit? What made you decide to join the read-a-long?

Have you read it before? If so tell us about that experience.

If you’re new to The Hobbit, do you have any preconceptions going into it?

J.R.R. Tolkien pretty much founded the modern fantasy genre. So let’s take a moment to think about the genre as a whole; have you always loved fantasy? Or perhaps you still feel rather skeptical towards the whole idea of wizards and dwarfs and magic? What was your introduction to the genre?

Do you have a certain plan for reading it? A few pages a day, spacing it out over the month? Or are you just going to race through it? Let whimsy decide?

A few years ago I would have said that I wasn't really a fantasy reader. While I don't read anywhere near as much fantasy as I do other genres, for example historical romance or historical fiction, these days I do read a fair proportion of fantasy, and also books featuring paranormal creatures. There are certain authors that I have read for an extended period of time that are classified as fantasy authors, like Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde, but other than those, one of the changes that blogging has made to the way I read is that I do read more outside of my two major genres, and really enjoy it!

When I started rereading this book, I didn't really have a plan as to how I was going to read. It was more a case of having to read it and read it now, and so that's what I have done. In the end I have been enjoying reacquainting myself with Bilbo, Gandalf and all the dwarves, I think I will probably finish it tomorrow morning.

Guess the main question I have left is how many more years will it be before I reread this book again?

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!

There is a certain irony in the fac that last week I was hosting Mr Linky, and had no loot whatsoever! This week, Eva is hosting, and I have quite a bit of loot.

Spirit Walker by Michelle Paver

A few weeks ago now I read Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver, and this is the second book in the series. This series is YA, set in the ancient past.

Nadia Knows Best by Jill Mansell

Jill Mansell writes excellent British chick-lit and I have read several of her books over the last year. I am pretty sure that this one won't disappoint either!

King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

I have read and really enjoyed the first two books in this series, and so it is time to read more! I was able to make the librarian's night by telling her that there is a fourth book coming out in this series. Angie from Angieville has already read the fourth book and loved it!

Upon the Midnight Clear by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Gettting closer to being able to read Acheron. I have this one, and then one more, and then I will be able to read Acheron.

Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer

Recently I read These Old Shades, and this book features the son of the couple in that book, so this will be my next Georgette Heyer book.

Dogs and Wolves by Irene Nemirovsky

I didn't realise that another one of Irene Nemirovsky's books has been released here. I think I have read everything else that has been published here over the last few years.

Her Secret Fantasy by Gaelen Foley

Reloot!

Away with the Fairies by Kerrie Greenwood

Another reloot. It would be good if I actually got to read this one soon as it would count for my Aussie Authors challenge.

Teaser Tuesday: Do you know what book it is?

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!

So the idea of Teaser Tuesday is normally to tell you which book it is that the teaser I have chosen comes from. I am however going to do something a little different this week. I am going to share my teaser, but I am NOT going to tell you which book it is from. I am pretty sure that at least some of you will know where the teaser comes from. Don't worry. If you don't know, scroll down underneath the teaser and highlight where it says TITLE and you will be able to see what book it comes from.

'What do you mean?' he said. 'Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?'

TITLE - The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien - end TITLE

Any Gardener types out there?

Anyone have any idea what this plant may be? Given how easily it is growing in my garden, and spreading, I am assuming it is a weed, but it's a kind of pretty weed! Click on the photo to make the image larger if you have any ideas and want a closer look.

And this photo was just because I love the deep purple colours of the flowers. I can sit at the computer and see these flowers from where I sit.

You can never have too much of a good thing right?

I am so glad that Michelle from 1MoreChapter.com is running this challenge again this year! Here are the rules from the challenge site.

1. Read a minimum of 10 books first published in 2010. You don’t have to buy these. Library books, unabridged audios, or ARCs are all acceptable. To qualify as being first published in 2010, it must be the first time that the book is published in your own country. For example, if a book was published in Australia, England, or Canada in 2009, and then published in the USA in 2010, it counts (if you live in the USA). Newly published trade paperbacks and mass market paperbacks do not count if there has been a hardcover/trade published before 2010.
2. No children’s/YA titles allowed, since we’re at the ‘pub.’
3. At least 5 titles must be fiction.
4. Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.
5. You can add your titles as you go, and they may be changed at any time.
6. Sign up at the Pub Challenge site using Mr. Linky.
7. Have fun reading your 2010 books!

Please use the link to your specific post about this challenge!

I also realised the other day that I have signed up for another challenge, but hadn't mentioned it on the blog anywhere. It is the In Death Challenge that is being hosted at Happily Ever After. This challenge is specifically designed to help us all get through the fabulous In Death series by J D Robb.

The other January challenge that I had forgotten about was National Just Read More Novels Month which is hosted by Foma.

Here are the guidelines:

1. Must Be A Novel. Works of fiction only, please. Memoirs, non-fiction, how-to books, and Garfield collections don't count.
2. Memoirs Aren't Novels. No matter how made up the story, anything ostensibly true isn't a novel. Also known as The James Frey Rule.
3. Start and Finish in January. I guess if you got some cool books for Christmas, Hanukkah or some other gift-giving event and jumped the gun, you can't be blamed. But I only count books I start and finish within the 31 day window.
4. Re-reading Doesn't Count. Try something new. Read something by your favorite author or try an entirely new author or tackle that novel you have always wanted to read.
5. Have Fun. Nobody is grading you or paying you or judging you. Read what you like and like what you read.

2009 Stats and memorable events (both good and bad)

Before we get too much further into 2010 I really should do my reading wrap up post for 2009.

Here are the stats:

Books Read -  153  (29 less than last year)

Library Books - 127 (83% of all books read)

Books I Own Read - 26 (of which 16 were books I owned at the start of the year)

Books Aquired during 2009 - 74 (TBR pile continues to grow rapidly)

Books by Australia Authors - 13 (Better than I thought but not as good as last year)

New to me authors - 50

Best reading months - March and August, when I read 17 books in each month

Worst reading month - January, when I read only 8 books.

No. of rereads - 3 (very surprised at that one. Normally I don't ever reread)

No. of DNFs - 1

Average Grade - 4.111

No. of pages read - 58522

Challenges participated in - 20


Genres 


Historical Fiction - 34 (no surprises there)
Mystery - 23 (some of those had a historical setting but were counted as mysteries)
Young Adult - 22 (that one surprised me a little)
Literary Fiction - 8
Fantasy/Sci-fi -8
Urban Fantasy - 6
Chick-Lit - 5
Non-Fiction - 1
Graphic Novel - 1
Classic - 1 (need to do better)
Romance - 44 in total (of which 23 were historical romance, 10 were contemporary romance (thanks mainly to Nora Roberts because I don't often read that many other contemporary romance authors), 9 paranormal romances, 1 romantic suspense and 1 erotica).



Best books of the year - The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, The Swan Maiden by Jules Watson, and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Worst book of the year - The Fool's Tale by Nicole Galland

Overall 2009 was a pretty good year personally, with some big highlights, but also a series of unfortunate events that is still ongoing (I think). Looks like I am going to have to change my locks on my house again.

I thought it might be fun to have a look at each month to see what happened (that I blogged about at least)

January - The most overwhelming thing about January was that it was HOT! Very hot. So far we have had a pretty cool start to 2010...thank goodness. I did find my new favourite recipe featuring prawns and the barbecue - quintessentially Aussie apparently. Oh, and I had to buy a new DVD player because Richard broke the last one.

February - This was a month of huge contrasts emotionally. On the low side, we watched in horror as the Victorian bushfires claimed more than 170 lives, with thousands of homes lost. I have been up to the bushfire area a few times since, most recently in November, and it still is very emotional driving through those areas. On the plus side, I got to go to the inaugural Australian Romance Readers Convention (ARRC)! I had a fantastic time, and got to hear many authors speak, and meet people who I had only known from online before! Can't wait for the next one.

March - The highlight for March was definitely going to the Sound Relief concert, which was held to raise funds for the Bushfire victims, and flood victims in other parts of Australia. You can read about my day here, and see some videos of the musical performances at The Written World.

April - My son played his first game of Aussie Rules Football, which was an exciting moment in our house. That event coincided with the first of Dewey's Read-a-thon's for the year, which was notable mainly because I started it 24 hours early, which was a little embarrassing. Not quite bad as doing the same thing again in October though!

May - This month was when my security issues started, and I ended up having to change all the locks in my house. I think that I am still having issues with this. On New Year's Eve my son's account on the computer was on, and I noticed something flashing. Turns out that it was my main suspects MSN account. I have no idea when he was in my house, but he hasn't been on my computer for months while I have been here so now I am wondering if he now has a copy of my housekeys. The other issue I had in May was that I had internet woes, so there wasn't much posting. The one good thing was a weekend away with the girls, which I don't think I ever got around to blogging about.

June - My internet issues were resolved, I went to see Pink, who was awesome in concert, and I started cohosting Library Loot.

July - I got out of bed on a Monday morning in July and decided to go to Perth to visit my family. Two days later I was there! I never do that kind of impulsive thing, and it was good! I am glad that I went.

August - I was offered a new job in August!

September - After nearly of ten years of working for the same employer, I left my job in September. It was emotional, but it was a relief because I had not been happy there for a while, and the one and a half hour commute each was just too much! I also fitted in a quick trip to Adelaide to see friends I haven't seen for years. Good times. I also joined Twitter this month, after resisting for so long because it was going to be too big a time suck. It is, but I am so glad I did it as it has definitely improved the way we can communicate with other book bloggers. I was also incredibly honoured to be nominated for Best Romance Blog as part of BBAW.

October - Started the new job. Got new glasses. Had car trouble, again. Had an awesome day out at the races.

November - Went away for a crafting weekend (another post that is basically written but never got posted!) and came home to find that I had had more security issues. More locks replaced, and a window replaced. Announced the Terry Pratchett challenge (you can still sign up here). Over at Historical Tapestry we announced the ABCs of Historical Fiction which is an ongoing event.

December - We kicked off the 2009 Virtual Advent Tour over on a separate blog. I was in Perth again, this time for a major family event - my grandfather's 100th birthday.

One thing that I was hoping to be able to say that I did better at this year was weight loss. I started a new regime back in April and did a really good job at sticking at it for quite a while and ended up losing over 15kgs. Over the last couple of months though I have not been very good, so I have started to put some of it back on. I am still 10kgs lighter than I was at the beginning of the year, but I really need to get back on the diet bandwagon and try and lose some more this year.

100+ Reading Challenge List

This post will be my list of reads for the 100+ Reading Challenge being hosted by J Kaye

January

1. The Awakening by L J Smith
2. Men of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong
3. Rumour Has It by Jill Mansell
4. The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien
5. Hunted by PC Cast and Kristin Cast
6. Bravo Mr William Shakespeare presented by Marcia Williams
7. The Laughter of Dead Kings by Elizabeth Peters
8. Shadowfae by Erica Hayes
9. The Night They Stormed Eureka by Jackie French
10. A Dangerous Love by Sabrina Jeffries 4/5
11. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett 4.5/5 (reread)
12. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford 4/5
13. Disco Boy by Dominic Knight 4/5
14. The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett 3.5/5 (reread)
15. Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale 4.5/5

February

16.If His Kiss Is Wicked by Jo Goodman (4.5/5)
17. Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex (4/5)
18. First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh (4/5)
19. A Distant Shore by Peter Yeldham (4.5/5)
20. Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander (3/5)
21. Graceling by Kristin Cashore (4.5/5)
22. Emma Vol 2 by Kaoru Mori (4/5)
23. Remember When by Nora Roberts/J D Robb
24. Roses by Leila Meacham (4.5/5)
25. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (5/5)
26. Betrayal of the Blood Lily by Lauren Willig (4/5)
27. Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland (4/5)

March

28. Lord Sunday by Garth Nix (4/5)
29. Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett (4/5)
30. Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer (5/5)
31. Dance of Seduction by Elle Kennedy (3.5/5)
32. The Struggle by L J Smith (4/5)
33. Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh (4/5)
34. Tempted by PC Cast and Kristin Cast (4/5)
35. Dance Upon the Earth by Nora Roberts (4/5)
36. The Champion by Elizabeth Chadwick (4.5/5)
37. A Duke of Her Own by Eloisa James (4.5/5)
38. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake (4.5/5)
39. The House on Tradd Street by Karen White (4.5/5)
40. The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen (4/5)
41. Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff (4/5)
42. The Stolen Crown by Susan Higginbotham (4/5)

April

43. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
44. Tangled Webs by Anne Bishop
45. When Twilight Burns by Colleen Gleason
46. The King's Favourite by Susan Holloway Scott
47. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
48. The Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran
49. Tempt Me At Twilight by Lisa Kleypas
50. The Endless Forest by Sara Donati
51. Within the Hollow Crown by Margaret Campbell Barnes

May

52. Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati
53. To Defy a King by Elizabeth Chadwick
54. The Fury by L J Smith
55. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
56. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
57. Uncertain Magic by Laura Kinsale
58. Hero at Large by Janet Evanovich
59. The Winthrop Woman by Anya Seton
60. The Knife of Letting Go by Patrick Ness

June

61. Emma Vol 3 by Kaoru Mori 4/5
62. A Cottage by the Sea by Ciji Ware 4/5
63. Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos 5/5
64. The Making of a Duchess by Shana Galen 3.5/5
65. The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley 5/5
66. The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey 4/5
67. Mort by Terry Pratchett 4/5
68. For the King by Catherine Delors 4/5
69. Fire by Kristin Cashore 4/5
70. Burned by PC Cast and Kristin Cast 4.5/5

July

71. At Last Comes Love by Mary Balogh 4/5
72. Twilight: The Graphic Novel by Stephenie Meyer and Young Kim 4.5/5
73. Emma Vol 4 by Kaoru Mori 4/5
74. City of God by Beverly Swerling 4/5
75. Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts 4/5
76. Shadow of the King by Helen Hollick 4/5
77. Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman 4/5
78. Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden  5/5
79. The Truth About Lord Stoneville by Sabrina Jeffries 4/5
80. The Oak Apple by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles 4/5
81. The Passage by Justin Cronin 4/5
82. Sourcery by Terry Pratchett 4/5
83. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer 3.5/5

August

84. A Murderous Procession by Ariana Franklin 3/5
85. The Hypnotist by M J Rose  4/5
86. The Love Knot by Elizabeth Chadwick 4/5
87. The Reincarnationist by M J Rose 4/5
88. Upon the Midnight Clear by Sherrilyn Kenyon 3.5/5
89. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis 5/5
90. The Girl on Legare Street by Karen White 4/5
91. Married by Morning by Lisa Kleypas 4/5
92. Zack: Armed and Dangerous by Cheyenne McCray 4/5
93. The Queen's Pawn by Christy English 3/5
94. The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner 4.5/5
95. Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich 3/5
96. The Dead of the Night by John Marsden 4.5/5
97. My Fair Mistress by Tracy Anne Warren 4/5
98. The Night Villa by Carol Goodman 3/5
99. Emma Vol 5 by Kaoru Mori 4/5

September

100. The Miracles of Prato: A Novel by Laurie Albanese and Laura Morowitz 4/5


Challenge Completed 1 September 2010

2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge list

This post will be my list of reads for the Support Your Local Library Challenge being hosted by J Kaye.

I am aiming to read 100 books from the library this year.

January

1. The Awakening by L J Smith
2. Men of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong
3. Rumour Has It by Jill Mansell
4. Hunted by PC Cast and Kristin Cast
5. Bravo Mr William Shakespeare presented by Marcia Williams
6. The Laughter of Dead Kings by Elizabeth Peters
7. Shadowfae by Erica Hayes
8. The Night They Stormed Eureka by Jackie French
9. A Dangerous Love by Sabrina Jeffries
10. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
11. Disco Boy by Dominic Knight

February

12.  Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex
13. First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh
14. A Distant Shore by Peter Yeldham
15. Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander
16. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
17. Emma Vol 2 by Kaoru Mori
18. Remember When by Nora Roberts/J D Robb
19. Roses by Leila Meacham
20. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
21. Betrayal of the Blood Lily by Lauren Willig
22. Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland


March

23. Lord Sunday by Garth Nix
24. Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
25. Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer
26. Dance of Seduction by Elle Kennedy
27. The Struggle by L J Smith
28. Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh
29. Tempted by PC Cast and Kristin Cast
30. Dance Upon the Earth by Nora Roberts
31. The Champion by Elizabeth Chadwick
32. A Duke of Her Own by Eloisa James
33. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
34. The House on Tradd Street by Karen White
35. The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

April

36. When Twilight Burns by Colleen Gleason

May

37. The Fury by L J Smith
38. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
39. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
40. Hero at Large by Janet Evanovich
41. The Knife of Letting Go by Patrick Ness

June

42. Emma Vol 3 by Kaoru Mori 4/5
43. Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos 5/5
44. The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley 5/5
45. The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey 4/5
46. Mort by Terry Pratchett 4/5
47. Fire by Kristin Cashore 4/5

July

48. Burned by PC Cast and Kristin Cast
49. At Last Comes Love by Mary Balogh 4/5
50. Twilight: The Graphic Novel by Stephenie Meyer and Young Kim
51. Emma Vol 4 by Kaoru Mori 4/5
52. City of God by Beverly Swerling 4/5
53. Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts 4/5
54. Shadow of the King by Helen Hollick 4/5
55. Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman 4/5
56. Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden  5/5
57. The Oak Apple by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles 4/5
58. The Passage by Justin Cronin 4/5
59. Sourcery by Terry Pratchett 4/5
60. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer 3.5/5

August 

61. A Murderous Procession by Ariana Franklin 3/5

62. The Love Knot by Elizabeth Chadwick 4/5
63. The Reincarnationist by M J Rose 4/5
64. Upon the Midnight Clear by Sherrilyn Kenyon 3.5/5
65. The Girl on Legare Street by Karen White 4/5
66. Married by Morning by Lisa Kleypas 4/5
67. Zack: Armed and Dangerous by Cheyenne McCray 4/5
68. The Queen's Pawn by Christy English 3/5
69. The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner 4.5/5
70. Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich 3/5
71. The Dead of the Night by John Marsden 4.5/5
72. The Night Villa by Carol Goodman 3/5
73. Emma Vol 5 by Kaoru Mori 4/5

September

74. Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong 4/5
75.The Various Flavors of Coffee by Anthony Capella 3.5/5
76. Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett 4.5/5
77. Real Men Last All Night Anthology 4/5
78. Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas 4/5
79. Serpent in the Thorns by Jeri Westerson 3.5/5

October

80. The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett 3/5
81. The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by CW Gortner 4.5/5
82. The Accidental Mistress by Tracy Anne Warren 4/5
83. Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie 3.5/584. Ravishing in Red by Madeline Hunter 4/5
85. Seducing an Angel by Mary Balogh 3.5/5
86. The Princess Bride by William Goldman 4/5
87. The Sharing Knife: Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold 4.5/5
88. The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie 4.5/5

November

89. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
90. Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt
91. The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier
92. Outback by Aaron Fletcher
93. Mr Rosenblum's List by Natasha Solomons
94. The Third Day, The Frost by John Marsden
95. The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
96. A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James
97. Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith
98. Dream Chaser by Sherrilyn Kenyon

December

99. The Memorist by M J Rose
100. Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane

December Reading Roundup

Whilst it is really time to do some kind of summary of my whole 2009 reading year, first I am going to do my regular monthly round up.

In December, I managed to read 13 books. I think my days of reading 18-20 books in a month are gone, mainly because of the reduction in my commute time, so I am pretty happy with 13 books. I think it is more like my new normal than anything. Here's what I read:

Black Hills by Nora Roberts 4/5
Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts 4.5/5
Bones of the Hills by Conn Iggulden 4.5/5
These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer 4.5/5
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare 4/5
The Conquest by Elizabeth Chadwick 4.5/5
The Temptation of the Night Jasmine by Lauren Willig 4/5
To Desire a Devil by Elizabeth Hoyt 4/5
This Duchess of Mine by Eloisa James 4/5

Hmm, lots of romance in there! Definitely was feeling the need for comfort reads during December apparently.

So how did I go on reading challenges for December then? How many challenge fails?

As I mentioned in last month's roundup, I didn't complete the Art History Reading Challenge. The idea was that I was supposed to read 6 books during 2009. In the end I managed to read 3. Of course, failing at it this year hasn't stopped me from signing up for the challenge again this year!

I am thinking that I am probably not going to finish the Harry Potter Reading Challenge either. There's still 7 months to go, but I haven't read anything. I will leave it for another month or two before officially declaring

I finally have the first book in the Vampire Diaries series out from the library, so I might actually be able to start that challenge.

You may note that there are no Pratchett books in that list! That's right, I didn't manage to read any books for my own challenge!


The one challenge that I did make progress on this month was the Period Drama Challenge. The other night I watched Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman etc, and I enjoyed it very much! I don't know why but I haven't seen many of the favourite classic adaptations over the year. For instance, I have never seen all of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth. I know, it's a travesty. Almost as much of a travesty as the fact that I have never read any of the Austen books either.

I have to say though that the big romantic scene in Sense and Sensibility was not quite as romantic as it might have been if I had not recalled this scene from the Vicar of Dibley so clearly. It's hard not to remember so clearly given how many of times I have seen these particular episodes. And, no this is not just and opportunity for gratuitous Richard Armitage. Really!



Of course, now that I have showed that scene, I really have to show this scene as well:



This one is just for a gratuitous Richard Armitage video! It's the promo for Strike Back which is going to be on in the UK later this year!







Now I need to go and work on my end of year post, my beginning of year post, and you know, maybe do some blog tidying up or some cleaning or reading, or maybe I will just watch these videos again because they make me happy.

Aussie Authors Challenge

Every year when I look back at the books I have read during the year there are usually two thoughts that cross my mind. The first is that I really, really need to read some classics, and the second is that I really don't read enough Aussie authors. Every year I think this year I am going to try to read 10 books or 15 books by Australian authors, and some times I get close, but other times I really don't.

When I saw that Booklover Book Reviews is hosting an Aussie Author Challenge, well, it seemed like a sign, and so I am signing up for the Fair Dinkum level

Here are the rules from Bookword Lover's challenge post:

TOURIST - Read and review 3 books by 3 different Australian authors


FAIR DINKUM - Read and review 8 books by Australian authors (a minimum of 5 different Australian authors)

RULES:

1. Write a challenge sign-up post on your blog. In that post provide a link to this original post acknowledging Booklover Book Reviews and put this Challenge Button on your sidebar, linking the button to my challenge post.

2. Add your name and the direct link to your AUSSIE AUTHOR CHALLENGE sign-up post in the Mister Linky list below.

3. Decide which Aussie authors you will read in 2010, although you can change your book titles or challenge level at anytime!

4. Each time you read and review a book as part of this challenge, share this with other challenge participants by adding a direct link to your book review to the list at this post AUSSIE AUTHOR CHALLENGE Book Reviews.



Need help deciding which Aussie Authors are going to be on your list?



To get you started, Abebooks provides a great list of Australian Authors and book titles at this LINK. Authors include Peter Carey, David Malouf, Tim Winton, Markus Zusak, Peter Temple, Shane Maloney, Kerry Greenwood, Gregory David Roberts, Frank Moorhouse and Kate Grenville just to name but a few...



Each week or two for the next few months I'll do an AUSSIE AUTHOR IN FOCUS post, providing information about these and other popular Australian authors, the books and series they've written and links to their homepages and book summaries.

My plan at this stage is to read books by Erica Hays, Jackie French, Dominic Knight and probably Kerry Greenwood for starters.