Happy Sunday! Sip along with your cola/coffee/tea/vodka, click the pics to visit other virtual reading rooms.. tell us..what are you reading this week??
I think I was in my top snarky form last week with my Sunday Salon, as I made fun of myself and therefore made you laugh. Which is great stuff. The sad thing is the moment I taunted that I am outside watching the kiddos romp and play, is the moment that the weekends turned yucky. That's what we call around here the Burton jinx. We have quite a few Burton jinxes around here. We try not to say them out loud.. so I'm moving on quietly lest the jinx gods hear me..
I do not like trying to contain two insufferable children in the same house that my husband is trying to sleep in at the same time. That is just one of the drawbacks of having a second shifter in the family. So now that I have perfected the admonishing tone accompanied with the overly loud "SSSHHHH!", the devil's spawn have now effectively been trained to ignore me simultaneously. Of course.
I did manage to sneak in a read this week, that I am so eager to share it with you all. Most of you know that my truest passion belongs to the intrigues of the Tudor courts. The books have multiplied at my house simply because of the Tudor obsession of mine. And then of course some of you may know that I have allowed my passion to be diverted, by reviewing non-Tudor reads lately. Which is why I started the Tudor Mania Challenge, to give myself a gosh-darn-good-reason to get back to my passion. I even went hog wild a freaked a few of you out with my excessive Suggested Tudor Reading post.
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| Secrets of the Tudor Court by D.L. Bogdan (April 27, 2010) |
But of course the review won't post till May first because I can't break my own Tudor Mania Challenge rules. (The Burton jinx rising its ugly head). The book was originally supposed to be out May 1, but Amazonian gods have moved up to April 27th. But May 1st also holds great promise for the author as she gets married that day..Congrats to her.. (
After I finished that read, I was on a book-high and needed some book encouragement to keep it going so I ordered two books from BookDepository UK and finally finally ordered the elusive missing piece to my Plaidy collection. Am I complete now that I have ordered The Sun in Splendour? Well gosh darn I really think I amthisclose!! I am going to have to thank the expert Plaidy ladies at Royal-intrigue for their help with organizing the collection and continuing to inspire me with their posts. My list of Plaidy aka Victoria Holt aka Philippa Carr titles can be found here. I have all of Victoria Holt, and missing two of the more expensive Carr's. After my book order comes in for The Sun in Splendour, I will own all of the Plaidy's that fit into a series; but it looks like I am missing about 11 of the Other Titles. Now, I just need to find the time to read them. Along with my Tudor reading challenge, there is the Jean Plaidy Reading Challenge that other Plaidy lovers need to join in on.
If you have the 532 page tome Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel on your shelf and have yet to read it, that would be perfect for the Tudor Mania Challenge.. but you can also participate in a read along at Amused By Books. Their goal is to get 100 pages read each week and discuss it each Wednesday. Also amusing is that they mention Oliver Cromwell as opposed to the true protagonist who is Thomas Cromwell, but hey it's a great idea, and perfect timing with this challenge!
And just when you think you cannot handle another challenge.. there is a new Daphne Du Maurier Challenge that I wish I could participate in. I have about 5 or 6 works of hers at this point. Book-A-Rama has the details here if you interested!
The winner of Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn is Bethie.. the very last entrant wound up #1 on the List Randomizer! Congrats to Bethie! And I am having issues uploading pics to Blogger, how fun is that?
There was some odd blogging plagiarism controversy thing going on again.. what is wrong with people who still do that, I wonder? Don't they realize that they will get caught? We were treated to many bloggers explaining the word plagiarism and posting the definitions of plagiarism and teaching others how to spell plagiarism. While I would never condone plagiarism, and had one of the respected 'bloggers' in my historical fiction community be plagiarized, I understand the outburst of rage at this sickness that some have. But I always find it so fascinating how some book bloggers feed off each other each time there is a controversy in the community. It is like there is a fire in the blogosphere, and a blogger comments on a post, then decides to do their own post, and it moves on like a chain letter.. utilizing the viral twitter and facebook as a source to spread these links to these posts.. but the most best thing I can find about it is that it thankfully dies away in a week. Hopefully. I would not mind my book reviews being caught up in a viral chain letter!
How fun it is to be a book blogger. I feel that it is awesome to be privy to so many diverse thoughts, at the tips of my finger tips, whether I want to or not, and whether I agree with it or not.. it's there. Just like there is a Twitter + Blog = ? post at this blog which has already gotten lots of thoughts, and she muses whether Twitter contributes to the attacking mentality. But there were lots of issues there. I have a feeling that I would be chewed up and spit out by a majority of the book bloggers out there if I ever tried to have one of these serious discussions, but I find extreme comfort in the fact that I have my own book blogging homegirls who would pick the remnants of me up after that happened. And that's what it is all about, right? Finding solace and kinship with others. Being nice to your neighbors. More power to the bloggers who spread the love. More power to the Power bloggers!
For me.. I stay out of it as much as possible. I blog for FUN. (I type that as my ARC pile laughs at me). OK, let's say this blog is supposed to BE FUN. I am a member of a certain community that hugs me when I am in need of virtual care. No, this does not include the whole entire million of book bloggers out there who don't know me from a hole in the wall. I have a select few book blogging friends that I have been blessed with that I know will have my back if need be, and I love them to pieces. And they know who they are. And I am so glad that we don't have blogging controversy blow ups like some others do, because that is just not something I thrive on. I hate controversy. I think I must be the Beatles version compared to the Metallica of book bloggers. And I want to make it clear that I don't think it's wrong for bloggers to discuss controversial things going on in the blogworld. I just find it amazing how it goes viral so fast. Just think, who would've thought, ten years ago, that book blogging would be such a powerhouse? Again, more power to them and us. I am not into picking apart other people's brains. I am just a humble book blogger. I review books and spout out random thoughts for Sunday Salon Amusement. And I (want to) have fun doing it so that's as far as I will take it because that's all my feeble brain can handle. The End.
Not really. That being said, scroll your tired eyes over to my left sidebar and see the current book giveaway going on for The Darcy Cousins by Monica Fairview. I am really saddened by the lack of response to this giveaway! I loved this book so you are really missing out on a great read. I am going to be REALLY mad at you if you don't enter and comment on my newest fave read by D.L. Bogdan, for which the giveaway is coming on Tuesday. And take a gander over at the newest review that I posted of Christy English's The Queen's Pawn. There is a very intriguing back story behind Eleanor of Aquitaine's almost-daughter-in-law, Alais, and you need to read this new book and learn all about it.
One more thing.. Beverly Cleary turned 94 years old last week! Her book Beezus and Ramona is being made into a movie in July, and it stars that cute girl from Wizards of Waverly Place. My daughter can tell you her name, I've blocked it out after seeing her cute little face all over my daughter's wardrobe and various accessories. But.. the idea that there will be a Bev Cleary movie is awesome, coming from this Cleary fan.
Suggestion to the official Google Blogger platform: put bloggers in your spellcheck database.
Off to chase kids.. or ideally, read a great book.. I have just finished By Fire, By Water by Mitchell James Kaplan and working on that review. Next I will read Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C.W. Gortner for the Historical Fiction Bloggers Round Table event May 8th. I suspect this will be a book you will see all around the blogosphere in May! What are you reading? I hope it's something Tudor themed for the Tudor Mania Challenge!
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