Abducted by my first Binchy

When my friend Kate, midnight book girl, moved to Virginia in the fall of 2008 we started an online book club to make sure our friendship would survive the distance. In March of 2009, Kate selected Heart and Soul as our book for the month

and that was my first Binchy.

Kate had been a fan of Binchy for years, but this was my first taste of what she had to offer.

What I remember most vividly of when I was reading it was my reaction after the second or third chapter. I was so happy reading about how these two characters were coming together, but at the end of the chapter something tragic happens and I remember I was literally shaking. I was crying hysterically and had to put the book down and walk away for a few hours before I could pick it back up and keep going.

That moment has stayed with me over these last few years as a testament to Binchy's ability to make you care for her characters. When you think about it, the first chapters of a book are meant to introduce you to people, but Binchy had me caring for them so intensely and so immediately.

I later wrote on our online book blog website; "...this was the first book that I have read in a long time that I didn't want it to end...I didn't want to leave these people."

I have since read several of her other novels and have continued to become more invested in the characters she created. If you read her novels you get the feeling that Binchy, herself, cherished her characters and didn't want to leave them either. That is why she would bring them back in different novels in supporting roles.

When Kate called me earlier this evening and told me that Binchy had passed away, I was very affected by it. I will truly miss her, but I am grateful that she had the career that she did. There are still many of her books to read and several more characters to fall in love with.

Abducted by Sundays in bed with... 7.29.12

"Sundays in bed with" is hosted by Kate aka Midnight Book Girl who is currently hidden away inside a vacation home on a beach somewhere! Miss you, Kate!

This Sunday I am home from church, back in my pajamas, and I have made a second pot of coffee and some eggs to have for lunch. I'm going to be having my "after church" coffee which means that I'm adding some Bailey's to it! Whoo Hoo!

And while I'll have the Olympics on in the back ground all day, I will also be making time to read...

The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell By Chris Colfer

which does include a beautiful map inside

and Chris has already won my heart because not only does he dedicate the book to his Grandmother (I have a soft spot for grandparents) but then he includes a quote from none other then my favorite ...

C.S. Lewis!!!

"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again." 

Which is an excerpt from the dedication that Lewis wrote to his Goddaughter Lucy Barfield for The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. 

I pre-ordered my copy of The Land of Stories from amazon, but my friend Kim from On the Wings of Books received her copy at the BEA conference and she graciously waited until the book was released world wide to read it so that we could read it together. Thanks Kim!

I hope you all enjoy your Sundays and feel free to share what books you will be spending your day with!

Abducted by Sundays in Bed with...7.22.12

Sundays in Bed With is a weekly meme hosted by Kate over at Midnightbookgirl!

I would have thought, that since I have been looking forward to going to church today for, oh, I don't know, about three weeks now, that I would have woken up this morning like this...

Up at dawn, birds singing in my ear with mice running around organizing my clothes and by the time I'm done singing my own song I would have been all dolled up and ready to go!

Well that didn't happen...

I wanted to get up at 6 and instead I got up at 7, so now I am running around trying to quickly do the laundry that I absolutely need for today and take a shower and curl my hair and put on makeup and eat breakfast all before 8 o'clock so that I can get to church asap!

But first I need coffee...

Oh, Thank God!!!

Okay, so anyway, for the small amount of time I have available to me to listen to an audio book while I'm getting ready, I will be listening to...

I had so much fun listening to the audio version of Jennifer Crusie's other book, Maybe This Time, that when it came time for my next available credit on audible.com I decided to pick a fun book and go with this one. So far I am about an hour into it and I am enjoying it.

The beginning set up involves two people hooking up together just to win a bet (on his side) or prove a point (on her side). It reminds me of How To Loose A Guy In Ten Days and that kind of a plot does require a little bit of suspended belief on behalf of the reader/listener. How can a man in his 30's take a bet centered around getting a woman into bed, and yet still be a respectable character that I want to root for? But her other book had a beginning premise that I had to force myself not to think to much about and when I was able to get over it I did really love the book. So I am hoping the same will be true of this novel.

What are you reading this Sunday?

Abducted by Lord of the Rings read along!

Like many of you out there I am so excited about the Hobbit coming out in December that I can hardly stand it!

To help cope with this building anticipation, I have decided that I am going to reread all of the Lord of the Rings books and The Hobbit this fall! And I wanted to take this moment to extend the invitation out to anyone that wants to join me!

There are some people out there in the world who can read through these books in one sitting and have no problems whatsoever. I am not one of those people! I find that these books can be hard to get through with all the ancestry and poetry and all the nitty gritty detail that they go into. So here is my plan...

I will read one book a month and break it down to three chapters a week! Three chapters a week will be a piece of cake!

In August I will be reading through The Fellowship of the Rings and I will be hosting weekly posts called "The Fellowship Fridays". Every Friday I will discuss the three chapters I read that week. In September I will have "Two Towers Tuesdays", and in October I will have "Made it to Mordor Mondays" (since the Return of the King is when Frodo and Sam finally make it to Mordor)! November is when I would like to reread the Hobbit, so I am thinking about writing those posts on Wednesdays and calling it "The Hobbit Hump Day" or "Hump Day with The Hobbit" - but those titles might be a bit too provocative so I'm taking suggestions.

If I can get a good group of people together who are willing to read along with me and participate in the discussions then I might host a giveaway in the end, but for now I am just extending the invitation.

So, Who's with me?

Abducted by blog hop 7.20.2012

I feel bad that I've been taking such long breaks from my blog posts and then coming back only to participate in meme's! But I liked this weeks question on the blog hop so much that I just had to give an answer!

hosted by Crazy For Books!

What’s the ONE super-hyped book you’ll NEVER read?

 I almost hate to say it because I know that so many of you, including some of my very close friends, aren't going to be to happy about this. But my answer is...

Let me stress that my choice to pass on this book is not because I think it will be bad or that I simply wont like it. I'm sure I would like it just fine. In the same way that I found Delirium by Lauren Oliver, Legend by Marie Lu, and Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan to all be books that were "just fine". I liked them, but I didn't looooooooove them.

Many of you may comment on this post saying "No, Courtney, you have to read this one! Four is amazing! At least read it for him!" To which I may say, "Okay, I'll try. Maybe some day..."

Guess what, I'm lying! I may keep it on my tbr list on goodreads and maybe, just maybe, the day may come when I get truly desperate for a book suggestion and so I break down and read it. Never say Never, right? But trust me, the likelihood of that happening is slim to none!

Abducted by Sunday in bed with...7.8.12

Sundays in Bed With is a meme hosted by Kate over at Midnight Book Girl!

This morning was definitely a morning when I wished more then anything that we lived in the world of the Jetsons so that I could have had my very own personal robot!

I was up until 4 in the morning listening to Maybe this Time by Jennifer Cruise. It was at a very climactic part and before I knew it I looked at the clock and knew I was in trouble. So when I woke up this morning at 8 o'clock, when I had to be at the church at 8:20, I knew I was in even more trouble. I needed coffee. I needed my laundry that I left in the laundry facility at my apartment complex. And I needed someone I could dictate this blog post to so that I wouldn't have to get up to write it myself.

Unfortunately, none of that happened. I had to make my own coffee and hurry over to get my clothes and then head off to church and now I'm trying to squeeze in time to write this before my mom shows up to help with a DIY project.

Needless to say I did not have time to spend my morning in bed. If I had, this is the book that I wish I could have been reading...

I started reading this a few weeks ago but had to put it on hold while I read my book club selection for next Saturday. I finished that book on Friday and finished Dancing in My Nuddy Pants yesterday so I was planning on spending today with my boy Odd. Hopefully, I will get some time later this afternoon.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a beautiful Sunday!

Abducted by Sunday in bed with...7.1.12

Happy Sunday Everybody!

Kate, midnight book girl, hosts a meme every Sunday for us to say what books we are spending the morning with, or wish we were spending the morning with!

Here is mine...

A couple of days ago audible.com was having a BOGO sale on some of their books. For one credit you could get two downloads. I searched through all the titles and the only one I really really wanted to get was Odd Hours by Dean Koontz, but I still had to find a second book. So in the end I chose Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie because it seemed harmless enough and I was attracted to the bright red cover (which now seems pretty dumb since I downloaded the book and don't actually get to look at the cover, but oh well).

The book is about this ex couple, Andy and North, who divorced 10 years ago and now Andy wants to get remarried but before she can do so she has to sever all ties to North. When she goes to see him, he asks her to do him this huge favor. Apparently some distant relatives have a house out in the middle of nowhere and the adults in the family have recently died leaving behind two kids. The children absolute refuse to leave the house and North needs someone to go and evaluate the situation and try to get the kids to want to leave. When Andy gets to the house, however, we start to learn that there is a chance the house is haunted....and that is about as far as I've got so far.

Yes, you do have to suspend your beliefs to think that it is perfectly normal that a guy would ask his ex-wife to go check on his cousins and that the said ex-wife would actually agree to something like that. But when you listen to it, or read it, it is easy to get past and so far I'm finding the book to be enjoyable.

I had a little bit of extra time this morning because I don't have to leave for church until just after 10, but instead of spending my morning in bed listening to the book, I decided to get up and make myself an awesome breakfast (while listening to the book)...

Cantaloupe, eggs with tomatoes and green peppers, and two blueberry muffins, plus coffee in my Sagittarius mug! Yum!

In other news, last week I challenged myself to write 7 posts in 7 days to make up for taking almost the entire month of June off from my blog, and unfortunately I failed! I was actually doing a good job and managed to get three meme posts up along with three full reviews! But when I came home from work yesterday I was distracted by a project in my house and then I settled down to watch the West Wing and completely forgot to write my last post!

Oh, well, missing 1 out of 7 isn't too bad so I'm proud of myself!

Have a happy Sunday everybody!