Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Read-a-Long

What? Don’t Look at me like that, I can sign up for another challenge if I like,..
Ok, fine I know I said I was keeping the challenges to a minimum and everything this year, but technically this isn’t a challenge it is a read-a-long – see there IS a difference. Don’t argue with me OK. Besides I have book 2 in the series sitting on my shelf so I really need to read the first book again – I do, really I do – to refresh my memory and all that jazz – and who know my first opinion of it may have changed after almost a year. And it will be fun reading this as a group and doing weekly posts on it :)


So here are the details…


The read-a-long is going to go from June 11th to July 23rd (AKA 7(ish) weeks ;)) and is being hosted by all the lovely bloggers who are listed in the button :)


Here are the blog links -


Into the Hall of Books
Gone with the Words
Logan E. Turner
The Reading Housewives
Stalking the Bookshelves
Tangled up in Blue (Tangled up in Jess)



The idea is that everyweek a different host blogger will have the questions for the chapters for that week and we all get to have a good blether about what we thought.



Sounds fun right? :)



I’ll see you with more Outlander on June 11th ;)

Bout of Books – Challenge (16/05/12)

You can find todays challenge post at Books Devoured

Your Challenge is to choose any book cover and Re-Title it! You can choose anything you like and go the serious or humorous route!

I always find this kind of thing pretty difficult, along with the what song would you give to this character/book.


But here goes.


I give you the cover of Graceling by Kristin Cashore

And I re-title it -


“How to Chop of Your Own Head in Three Easy Steps”



My answer to Tuesdays challenge can be found here


I hope everyone is achieving their goals :)

Bout of Books – Challenge (15/05/12)

You can find the challenge post at Nyx Book Reviews

Ooooo… questions ;) I missed yesterdays challenge but here goes nothing…


Share your most shocking, embarrassing or funny book related story.


Umm… the only REALLY embarrassing books moments I have is when 
a) my mum found a Mills and Boons book under my pillow when I was 13. What she was doing anywhere near the pillows of my nicely made bed I will never know… 
And then next is when I had my copy of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon in the car along with my grandmother and as picked it up (thank fully she didn’t open as I had no idea where I had left the bookmark) and asked me if it was good. Now I know that some grandmothers – from what I have heard – have been responsible for getting their grand-kids into the Outlander series…yeah, my gran isn’t one of them. I think I would have died if she had started reading it somewhere…ummm…dodgy.

And just for the heck of it here is the 'this or that' questions :)

Physical book or eBook? – Physical book
Paperback or Hardcover? – Paperback
Reality or Make-believe? – Make-believe
Adult or Young-Adult? – Adult
Dog ears or Bookmarks? – Bookmarks
Breaking the spine or Barely open the book? – Breaking the spine
Tea or Coffee? - Tea
Reading in bed or On the couch? – In bed
Series or Standalone? – Series
Original or TV Adaptation? – Original
Defy motion sickness or Audiobooks? – Audiobooks
Author crushes or Who-was-that-guy-again? – Who-Was-That-Guy-Again
Interview or Guest post? – Guest Post


I hope everyone's reading is going well :0)

Tune in Tuesday

Tune in Tuesday is a weekly feature that you can find at GReads and it gives us a chance to show off some of our favourite music :)

More random guys! :)

Take a Chance on Me–from Mamma Mia the Movie

Billie Jean by Michale Jackson

*don’t judge me ;)* Les Poissons from The Little Mermaid

I’m just a Little Black Rain Cloud from Winnie the Pooh

Soo another scary look into my itunes library.
Yeah, like you aren’t in you 20s and have Winnie the Pooh on YOUR iPod. ;)

(ALL videos are from YouTube and the meme graphic is from GReads)

Review –The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

One Thursday lunchtime the Earth gets unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. For Arthur Dent, who has only just had his house demolished that morning, this seems already to be more that he can cope with. Sadly, however, the weekend has only just begun, and the galaxy is a very strange and startling place.
(DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS)


I wanted so much to love this book, I mean, it’s a classic, but unfortunately it just kept missing the mark over and over again for me. At times it was like Adams was trying to hard and there would be these massive sentences that I would have to re-read because by the time I got to the end the first time I had forgotten what was at the beginning (Maybe that says more about me than the author though). The thing was though that I knew that the point being made by the uber long sentence was meant to be dry and sarcastic and would have probably appealed to my sense of humour but it was lost to me. At points I would perk up at a passage as it reminded me of the writing style of Terry Pratchett and then it would all go down hill again.

Marvin the depressed robot was BRILLIANT. But I will admit that this was a fall out from the film version – he was my favourite character so when I was reading I was pre-disposed to like him.

I am going to give the 2nd book a try when I have the chance as some people have said that it is better than the first – and I feel really guilty (weird I know) for not LOVING such an iconic book.

The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards-somersault through a hoop whilst whistling the ‘star-spangled banner’, but in fact the message was this : So long and thanks for all the fish.

Bout of Books Read-a-Thon

Yes! Everytime a read-a-thon comes along I ALWAYS miss it but not this time baby! By the way thank you to all the bloggers who posted on their blogs about this because if I had not seen it so many times I would have gone another read-a-thon without knowing, so you guys ROCK big time. No seriously, you do :)

Sooo...Bout of Books lasts a week starting tomorrow (14th May)


My goal is to try and finish 2 books at the least - yeah not a huge goal I admit but I am trying to be realistic here and considering that I did no reading over the weekend I think 2 books is a pretty decent goal :)


I have 2 books that I have been half-way through for quite a while now so I would love to get them finished.... 

And 2 books that I would like to read are...

So lets see how that goes shall we ;)

14th May

Number of books I've read today - (seriously?)

Total number of books I've read - (ditto)

Books - [READING] Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot (pretty good too ;))

Pages in - 69 pages (too tired last night to read for long...finish work a little early tomorrow though ;))

15th May

Number of books I've read today - (*tumbleweed*)

Total number of books I've read - (*more tumbleweed*)

Books - [Still READING] Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot 

Pages in - 69 pages. Yes, I am still where I was yesterday.

(yeah today was an epic failure)

16th May

Number of books I've read today - (*whistles*) 

Total number of books I've read - (*picks at finger nails*)

Books - [Still READING] Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot (I am REALLY enjoying this book, great fun)

Pages in - 108 pages. Woohoo a whole 39 pages read. 

(So I am not getting as much reading done as I wanted but, hey, at least I got some done today)

17th May

Number of books I've read today - (yes I know, I am an epic failure at this)

Total number of books I've read - (*cough*)

Books - [Guess what I'm still READING] Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot (my opinion of the main character has gone down a bit...)

Pages in - 201 pages. So near to 100 read and yet so far...

(it's the weekend in a days time, I'll get plenty of reading done them. Pwwwomisse)

18th May

Number of books I've read today - (guess)

Total number of books I've read - (*whistles*)

Books -[Still READING (don't look at me like that)] Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

Pages in - 212 pages. Yeah a whole 19 pages in a day ... :/

(Soooo I am not awfully good at this am I? Saturday tomorrow though :0))

19th May

Number of books I've read today - 

Total number of books I've read - 

Books - 

20th May

Number of books I've read today - 

Total number of books I've read - 

Books - 

***New Design!***

Hi Guys.

Eeeek I am so excited about this. Just how pretty does my blog look!? Isn't is gorgeous!

And it is all thanks to Lea from LC's Adventures in Libraryland. She was wonderful and answered all of the silly little questions I had about the design :)

Check out her design site (Lea Christine Designs) for what she can do and to see some of the other blogs she has designed :)

TGIF–Supporting Characters

TGIF is a weekly meme that can be found over at greadsbooks.com. Every week you can find a question that is bound to get you thinking. 

We tend to gush over those main characters the most, but what about those supporting roles? Who are some of your favorites?

My favourite supporting characters all come from series. I suppose that this is because it allows me to get to know them more through appearances in different story lines and situations.

1. Peabody from J.D. Robb’s ‘In Death’ series. Peabody is the main characters aide and trainee and I am loving watching her character develop and learning more about her through the books.

My 2nd and 3rd characters are from the same series, ‘The Tales of the Frog Princess’ by E.D. Baker – these books are brilliant fun by the way and I can’t recommend them enough.

2. My 2nd fav character is on who is not a recurring character – he only shows up in the first book but he really made an impression on me. He is Fang the snake. He is so gallant and such a gentlemen, I loved him to bits.

3. Next we have Li’l the bat. She is so cute and her personality is adorable – and not to mention she has her own little story line (a Vampire  fall in love with her – see I bet THAT makes you want to read these books doesn’t it?) I am living in hope that Li’l will get a whole book of her own in the future.

4. And last but not least we have Murtagh from Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I actually fell in love with this guy a bit. I loved his personality. He was definitely a man whose actions spoke for him .

(TGIF Graphic is from GReads )

Feature and Follow Friday

Follow Friday is a weekly Blog Hop that can be found over at Parajunkee’s View.

This weeks question is -

This Sunday in the U.S. is Mother’s Day, in celebration, what are some of your favorite books with strong mother/child relationships?

It seems like the books that I read (not purposefully) all have either orphans or UBER dysfunctional families – something that I can appreciate in some books but bugs the life out of me in others I won’t go into that rant here thought look here if you would like to read my thoughts on that.

Moving on…

Soooo mother/daughter relationships in books. Gee I am drawing a blank on this one.

I suppose i like the relationship between Mia and her mother in the Princess Diaries books. There’s seems to be more like a sister relationship than mother and daughter most of the time…

Who else?

(Seriously I am scanning my bookshelves waiting for a bolt of lightning to hit me with an idea…it ain’t happening)

Sorry guys that’s the best I have got for now…

Mostly the mother/daughter relationships in books tend to bug me and make me want to throw the books across the room for one reason or another.

£10 Gift-Card Giveaway–UK

 

Hi Guys!

First off, happy Friday everyone . I hope you are all going to have a nice weekend.

So, today I turn 22 years old. Wow, kinda freaky that. I don’t feel any different from when I turned 16.

But  I have a present for my followers  

A £10 Waterstones Gift Card. I have been sitting on it for a month waiting for today and it has finally came around. YAY!

As this is a Waterstones card I am sorry but this giveaway will only be for UK residents.

Entering to win it is easy. Just fill in the rafflecopter

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Tune in Tuesday

Tune in Tuesday is a weekly feature that you can find at GReads and it gives us a chance to show off some of our favourite music :)

 

WOO HOO time for some more random. Here goes…

 

Radio by Beyonce

 

He/She Danced with Me from Slipper and the Rose (one of my favourites fyi)

 

Oye Mi Canto by Gloria Estefan

 

Castle on a Cloud from Les Miserables

Soo…there is another random crazy collection for you.

 

 

(ALL videos are from YouTube and the meme graphic is from GReads)

Review - The Princess Dairies by Meg Cabot

'You're not Mia Thermopolis any more, honey, ' Dad said. 'You're Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo. Princess of Genovia.'


A PRINCESS ME Yeah. Right.


One minute Mia's a totally normal Manhattan 14-year-old. Next minute she's heir to the throne of Genovia, being trailed by a trigger-happy bodyguard, taking princess lessons with her bonkers old grandmere, and having a makeover with someone called Paolo. Well, her dad can lecture her till he's royal-blue in the face, but no way is Mia going to turn herself into a style-queen. And they think she's moving to Genovia? Er, hello?


(DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS)


I really enjoyed this! Yeah, I bet you weren’t expecting that from the string of ‘whatever’ reviews there has been lately. And I really wasn’t expecting to either which made this all the more surprising. I tried to read The Princess Diaries books in my early teens and I will admit that I did not get much further than halfway through book 2. I think this was because Mia’s attitude bugged me. There was a lot of rubbishy stuff going on in my life at that time that sped up my maturity and having Mia blowing up about finding out she was a princess was NOT what I was wanting to be reading about.

But now it is a brilliant bit of fluff and I can sympathise with Mia’s predicaments in a way that I couldn’t when I was younger – Bizarre I know.

I love how Mia’s grandmother is the total opposite of how she is portrayed in the movie. I have an image of a Cruella DeVille type character in my head whenever I read about her .


<<<<<<<<<<<Exhibit A


Exhibit B>>>>>>>>>>>











I remember going through a recycling and sea-life kick after I first read book 1 – thanks to Mia’s love of Greenpeace. But on the whole I remember her constant complaints about having no chest and no date/boyfriend a tad OTT and annoying.

But as I said, this time round I thoroughly enjoyed it and found that I could appreciate the humour more this time around. I am looking forward to Book 2.

Feature and Follow Friday

Follow Friday is a weekly Blog Hop that can be found over at Parajunkee’s View.

This weeks question is -

What is one thing you wish you could tell your favorite author?

What is with all the difficult questions all of a sudden? Sheesh. I have always said that Charlotte Bronte is my favourite author but I never really thought about what to say to her.

Maybe that I wish she had lived long enough to write more books (but that seems very selfish).

Maybe to thank her for penning Jane Eyre – as through reading that at a young age I began my love of all things bookish.

Maybe to say thank you for taking that step to write in a world where a woman’s roll was very clearly cut in society.

Despite all of these things that I could say, I think I would just thank her for being her.