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Teaser Tuesday

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Cover of "Faking It"

Cover of Faking It

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’m reading “Faking It” by Jennifer Crusie.  Picked up the paperback at the library, wanting a quick fun read before I delve into a couple of my next book club books.  I’m not too far in the book, so I’m just gonna pick a few places:

“So I thought I could go and distract them and you could sneak in and steal it,” Gwen said. “And then we can bury it in the basement again.”

Three blocks away, Clea sat at the breakfast table, tapping her fingernail against the coffee cup.  It was the closest she could come to throwing the damn thing at Mason and still project loving warmth, the kind of woman he’d want to face over the breakfast table for the rest of his life.

 

I guess I didn’t follow the rules exactly, as I chose two different locations in the book!  Oh well.  They were fun and random little teasers from a fun little book!  I also had to look up the definition of ‘meme’ because I keep seeing it places!  According to Wikipedia (the source I love to use when I don’t care about the research!) a MEME is:  meme (play /ˈmiːm/, rhyming with “cream”[1]), a relatively newly coined term, identifies ideas or beliefs that are transmitted from one person or group of people to another. The concept comes from an analogy: as genes transmit biological information, memes can be said to transmit idea and belief information.

A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes, in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures
Your turn!!!  Comment with your thoughts on MEMES or your teaser!

Off to read!

48 Hour TBR Marathon, et al

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pile of books

Someone's TBR Pile (Image by Leo Reynolds via Flickr)

Exploring book blogs is SO fun, but can get overwhelming!  Did you know there are blogaversaries?  I wonder when this blog should have celebrated that?  There are book challenges: read so-many pages, read all of Austen’s books, read all science fiction, read all romance in February.  There are Blog-Hops – what do you think that is?  I think that it’s where several blogs ask the same question and want you to post comments all over? But I’m not sure.  There are Three-Things Thursdays, Wordless Wednesdays, lots of giveaways and long-term big-book read-alongs.

And now this weekend is the 48 hour TBR Marathon!  A good idea for a cold, early February weekend when there will be LOTS of football talk on TV.  A good idea to work on that TBR (to be read) pile.  Friday night to Sunday night.  Read read read.  Blog about it.  Post your TBR list.

I’m not a fast reader, so I doubt much of a dent will be made in my TBR list.  Especially if I keep reading book blogs!  But first on my list is reading “The Summer We Read Gatsby,” which I am enjoying so far.

 

Coffee, Scones, and Colin Firth…

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66ème Festival de Venise (Mostra) Colin Firth

The Sexy Colin Firth

Greetings all!  This is Sarah… My maiden voyage post!

Today has been a FAB day! Danette and I have the day off- Hooray!  What a wonderful end to the week!  The day has been full of coffee, yummy scones (made by Danette), a mall walk, a quick peruse through Barnes and Noble, and a trip to Trader Joes….and it isn’t even 2pm yet!  I may even make it to a movie this afternoon.  I want to see Black Swan before it leaves the theater.  However, I am not really a “movie buff” like Danette, so my trips to the theater are limited.  By “limited”, I mean that I may see a movie in the theater once per year.  Given this year’s Oscar selections, I am tempted to shatter my previous movie-going record! I also want to see True Grit (currently reading the book), The Fighter, and The Kids are All Right. I did venture to the theater a few weeks ago to see The King’s Speech and was blown away by the story, the humor, and the stellar acting.  It was a WOW movie! Plus, Colin Firth is quite sexy!

Speaking of True Grit, my next post will be about that book!

Cheers!

I think I figured it out!

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Wow, this wasn’t as hard or as easy (!) as I thought it would be!  The poll was created but I thought it would be on the side, not in a post.  So I had to read a few ‘help’ blogs.  Maybe you can have an “everlasting” poll, but it appears that polls belong in posts.

So I hope to get some feedback from you!
And, off to clean!  I’ll write about “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” movie later.

A Little Tutorial!

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Help!

Image by Dimitri N. via Flickr

Wow, tonight I was reading about blogging and snazzing up blogs.  How fun!  I went back and edited two posts but won’t do all of them, I promise. But from here on out, expect great things!  HA!

They say one way to get more participation is through polls, so I might have to do some of that.  Maybe that will be the February challenge.  A poll every week!

Well, I’ve been doing a lot of reading about wordpress, but now I’m gonna crawl in!

Off to read!

Bloggiesta 2011!

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All right, it’s Bloggiesta time!  I don’t think of myself as a true book blogger, but I think of my blogging as a way of talking about the books I’ve read not in a review format.  I use goodreads to keep track of the books and my ratings of them, and I am thankful for that site!  I think of this blog as a way for the book club or anyone interested to talk about the books we’re reading, what we want to read, and when we’re going to read them.   I’d also love to hear about your favorite book or writing blogs!

I learned about Bloggiesta from Bookwork with a View blog.  Through Mari’s site I clicked through to Maw Books and learned more about Bloggiesta – as well as discovered a WHOLE BIG LIST OF MORE BOOK BLOGS!  Yikes!  I guess it’s a nice thing to do on a cold weekend in January.  Find more favorites to add to my daily check and maybe organize this blog better in the meantime!

One thing I’m not very good at is tagging or categorizing posts on here.  I’m also not good at adding media to posts to make them more interesting.  So, a list of things to do would include:

1) organize the categories and tags
2) figure out other tools available in wordpress and use more of them!

Well, all this talk of fiesta-ing makes me crave a margarita!  Might have to do something about that!  And then…

Off to read!
Happy Bloggiesta!

2010

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Well here we are, the last day of 2010.  It doesn’t seem that long ago that I got used to saying “twenty ten” – and now here we come “twenty eleven”!  Amazing.

I finished “Helen of Pasadena” in the wee hours… it was a fun, quick, smart romance.  It made me reschedule my appointment at the Genius Bar on Wednesday, because I had a hard time putting it down and getting out the door on time.  I turned out the light last night after finally admitting I was too tired to finish (12:40 AM) but a few minutes later turned the light on again and finished.  A fun book.  It is the book club pick for my Preston bookclub in January.  It will be fun to discuss.

Thanks to Goodreads, I think I have a pretty good list of all the books I read in 2010. In reverse chronological order they include:

  1. Helen of Pasadena
  2. Before You Know Kindness
  3. Shanghai Girls
  4. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Millennium, #3)
  5. When in Rome…: A Novel of Piazzas and Passion
  6. The Last Time I Saw You: A Novel
  7. How to Be Single
  8. Blessings
  9. Going in Circles
  10. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
  11. The Love Season
  12. The Cinderella Deal
  13. Beatrice and Virgil
  14. Away
  15. The Next Thing on My List
  16. Water for Elephants
  17. The Sleeping Beauty Proposal
  18. Everything She Thought She Wanted: A Novel
  19. Other People’s Weddings
  20. The Stormchasers
  21. Best Friends Forever
  22. The Girl Who Played with Fire
  23. The Other Woman
  24. Belong to Me
  25. Love Walked In
  26. The Beach House
  27. Firefly Lane
  28. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1)
  29. The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and Friendship
  30. The Glass Castle: A Memoir
  31. Size 12 is Not Fat: A Heather Wells Mystery
  32. Chasing Harry Winston
  33. Peony in Love
  34. The Friday Night Knitting Club
  35. No Horizon Is So Far: Two Women and Their Historic Journey Across Antarctica
  36. The Cat Who Said Cheese (Cat Who…, #18)
  37. The Moment Between
  38. Slam
  39. The Help
  40. A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table

Items of note in my “book world” in 2010:

  • I met three authors – Ann Bancroft, Lian Dolan and Jenna Blum.  I got to spend a lot of time with Ann and Jenna and they are both remarkable women and inspiring!
  • I read the three Millenium books and unexpectedly loved them all.
  • I read the book that inspired the start of the Cosmo Girls.
  • I listened to a few more audiobooks this year than I have in a while – although it used to be all I listened to in my car and with the death of my iPod I anticipate I’ll listen to more in 2011!
  • I plowed through a lot of books during my Ferragosto vacation.
  • 40 books = almost a book a week, which is very cool!

In 2011 I look forward to many more book club discussions, meaningful books, fun books, book blogging, and hopefully more meet-ups with authors!

Happy Wishes for a beautiful 2011!

Off to read!

Whew, December!

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Not a single post in November.  Lazy?  Busy?  Hard to say… So I’m jumping back on the wagon…

December 1 I went to a book signing at J.Jill in Edina for “Helen of Pasadena” by Lian Dolan.  I’ve been a follower of the Satellite Sisters since the late 90s so it was exciting to meet one in person.  Lian is funny and quick, and I can’t wait to read her book.  I have heard only good things about it and will recommend it for our book club in January.

Currently I’m reading (plodding through) “Before You Know Kindness” by Chris Bohjalian. Plodding through mostly because I’m distracted by other things, like TV and movies and computer.  It is pretty good, although a bit ploddy sometimes.  I listened to “The Shanghai Girls” audiobook and loved that.  I like Lisa See’s books so far – my second of hers.  I have “Snow Flower and Secret Fan” on my iPod, too.  Sarah’s mom talked about how good it was, although it has graphic descriptions of foot binding in it.  Not sure how I’ll stomach that.  I also listened to a couple of fluffy audiobooks, which makes my commute more pleasant but gets me behind in my podcast listening!  🙂

Next I plan to read “Helen of Pasadena” and then “Sarah’s Key.”  I haven’t finished “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” yet, either.  I think it would be fun to re-read “The Tale of Two Cities” with Oprah’s book club, but we’ll see!

Are you ripping through books or finding other distractions during the holiday season?

Well, off to read!

A non-Plinky post

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You’ve probably noticed that I’ve been using “blog starters” for some posts.  I challenged myself to write more in August – not too successfully, but maybe 75% of the days saw some kind of writing – and I found Plinky.  It’s an EASY way to make a creative looking blog!  I certainly don’t ever upload any images or media of any kind to my posts… maybe I should challenge myself to do that!  Plinky makes it so easy!  I was excited enough to find a site called “tagxedo” and I made a picture for my gravatar.  I think.  We’ll see.  I know that it’s working with Twitter.  It’s a pretty cool feature.

Anyway, right now I’m reading Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and as you know, it’s awesome.  I read it (or listened to it) a few years ago – maybe even four years ago – and loved it.  I’m enjoying reading it with my eyes even more, although the dialogue can get a little confusing, can’t it!?  On the audiobook it flowed better or something.  But it’s still super enjoyable.

I haven’t read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years in a while… I’m three chapters behind at this point.  Maybe this weekend I’ll get some reading done.  I think I’m watching too much TV and reading too little lately.

So my writing challenge was a so-so venture in August.  I blogged, wrote haikus and journaled in my book.  But not every day.  It’s already mid-September, so maybe I’ll have to set an October challenge for myself.  I really want to learn some beautiful accordion music so maybe that will be my challenge.  I also hope to read the Harry Potter books… must get busy!!! Anything that you are planning to challenge yourself with before the end of 2010?

And now, off to read!