ReadingAdventures

Not a bad reading month this month. The number of books read was down a little, and I am not really sure why, but overall I have been reading less all year so that just continues the trend.

The books I did read this month were:

Hugh and Bess by Susan Higginbotham 4/5
Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas 4.5/5
The Dream Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon 4/5
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee 4/5
Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourn 4.5/5
Jewels of the Sun by Nora Roberts 4.5/5
Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich 4/5
The Dark Rose by Cynthia Harrod Eagles 4.5/5
Chosen by P C Cast and Kristin Cast 4/5
An Affair Before Christmas by Eloisa James 4/5
Lord of the Silent by Elizabeth Peters 4.5/5
The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella 4.5/5

Of the challenges that I have not yet completed this year, I didn't make any progress on the Art History reading challenge, but I have borrowed a couple of books that will fit the theme, so hopefully in the next couple of months I will make some progress.

I read two books this month for the War Through the Generations challenge - The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee and The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella. I think I have one more book to read to complete this challenge.

At this point I have read 86 books that I started this year and so not long to go before I finish the 100+ reading challenge.

This month I joined in the Period Drama Challenge, which isn't about reading at all, but rather watching period dramas. Last night I watched the last quarter of North and South (again) so now I will probably watch the whole thing again and then that will be one down for that challenge as well.

I did mention last month that I was thinking about joining a couple more challenges, and now I am officially joining both the Harry Potter reading challenge. Whilst I have read the first four books in the Harry Potter series, I didn't ever get around to reading the last three. My brother is supposed to be giving me the audio version as read by Stephen Fry so I will most likely listen to that in order to complete this challenge.

The other challenge that I am signing up for is the Reliquiae Challenge because I really can't resist paranormal books! I am going for the highest level (Haunted Nights). My first three books are going to be Kissing Sin by Keri Arthur, Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris and City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. I will work out the other three books in due course.

Finally, a big thank you to Gina from Book Dragon who has awarded me the Kreativ Blogger award. Thanks Gina!

In the last cardmaking post I did I mentioned that I was trying out some new techniques, one of them involving a new to me product called Twinkling H2Os. Because I enjoy just sitting there painting across the page with the watercolours, I have numerous backgrounds created mostly in a similar shade to the ones that you see here, but also a couple of others. When I was at Paperific I also bought a new stamp featuring a stylised lady made by an Australian company called Eclectic Images. They have quite a few more of these ladies, and I think I am going to have to purchase some of them before too much longer. Once I had my background, I stamped and embossed the lady and then coloured her in using more Twinkling H2Os. At first this was just a play around, but I think it looks good with the two ladies on it. I am pretty pleased with the final effect, and am thinking that I am going to try and make more lady cards and/or bookmarks. To aid with this I just HAD to go and buy more colours yesterday!



I did try and create a colour chart of the different colours that I now own, but given that I have now bought more I need to add those. I just love that you can different depth in the shades from a single colour, and use them both for backgrounds and for colouring. The fact that you get a lovely shimmery effect doesn't hurt either!

The second card was inspired by one of the monthly card swap cards that I received last month - a spinner card!



A friend of mine is turning 40 this week. She is a very girlie girl who loves pink and Cosmo cocktails, so my aim was to incorporate those two aspects into one card. I used the same technique as I did with the dragonflies. You start by stamping your image using Perfect Medium or Versamark, and then sprinkling hot set glue powder over the image. You then use your heating tool to melt the powder and sprinkle your glitter over the now melted glue. By heating again with the heating tool you cause the glue to set, meaning that the glitter is set into the glue and therefore won't just wipe off the card in the future. The paper that I used is from Alison Ellis Designs as is the glitter.

I've put in an order for some really small word stamps so that in future I would be able to stamp the Happy Birthday in, but for now I had to write it. I think I am going to have to order this cocktail stamp as well. At the moment I am just borrowing it from a friend.

The neat thing about this card is that the cocktail spins. It is a bit difficult to show that in still photos so I took a few seconds of video with my phone to show it in action. It isn't exactly easy to get a good shot when you are the person holding both the camera and the object, but hopefully you will get the idea!



I feel as though I need to give you all fair warning that you are going to see various incarnations of these cards a few more times, because I am pretty enamoured of them! In my mind I am seeing spinning dragonflies amongst other things! I do love that dragonfly stamp that I used last time.

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!

It was a very exciting week for me last week. I got my first ever Inter Library Loan (ILL)! I actually didn't think I would get it because when I was filling in the online request it asked how much I was willing to pay and it said that the maximum cost could be up to almost $20 which I thought was a bit steep, but instead of filling it in I just left it blank. I have to say though that I was a bit surprised when I picked the book up from my library as they add a cover to it. It made me laugh a little because you can't even tell which book it is underneath the cover. It's very green!



Eva was supposed to be back from holidays last week, but there hasn't been a new post from her yet, so if there is no Mr Linky up by the time I get up on Thursday I will add one to this post.

My loot this week:




Honolulu by Alan Brennert - I have been wanting to read this author's first book, Moloka'i for ages, so when I saw that this book had been added to the catalogue I requested it.











Tears of the Moon by Nora Roberts - I read the first book in this trilogy, Jewels of the Sun, a couple of weeks ago.












The Royal Harlot by Susan Holloway Scott - Normally I don't read books out of order, but I have read the third book in this series, The French Mistress, not too long ago. Now I am going back to the beginning to work my way through. This is the book that is hidden underneath the green ILL cover.








Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris - As soon as I see the next Sookie Stackhouse book has been added to the library catalogue I request it. I was a bit slow this time, but it has finally come in!












Annette Vallon by James Tipton - One thing I don't do very often at the library is browse, but the other night I was walking past the end shelves where they display books and this one caught my eye.











The Princeling by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - the next book in the Morland Dynasty series of books. The cover I had is from about 30 years ago and is fabulous, but for the time being I will use this one. I will find the real one eventually though.






Only one reloot this week:






Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin - the third book in the Adelia series of medieval mysteries.








Edited to add Mr Linky.

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!

For the first time ever I think I was really conscious today of looking for a teaser for tonight. The main reason is because I really wanted to find a quote which represented the reasons why I love reading this series - the humour, the mystery, the great characters, the fun locations. That's a lot for two lines to represent though, so in the end, despite searching while I was reading, I have ended up just opening the book and choosing from a random page, and then I cheated and chose more than two sentences!

My teaser this week comes from page 248 of Lord of the Silent, book number 13 in the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters:

I put my empty glass on the table and stood up. Emerson remained seated. '...like an avalanche,' he muttered, staring into space. 'Get out of the way...only chance...nine people and the cat...'

The acclaimed author of The King’s Favorite returns to the decadent court of King Charles II to follow the dazzling life of Louise de Keroualle, a shy maid of honor who would rise to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful women of her time.

1668: The daughter of a poor nobleman, Louise leaves the French countryside for the glittering court of the legendary King Louis XIV. As a baby-faced maid of honor, the innocent Louise attracts little notice––until she catches the eye of the visiting English king, Charles II. Before long, she is sent by the scheming Louis to London as a royal “gift” for Charles. There she is expected not only to please the tastes of the jaded English king, but to serve as a spy for France.

Alone in a foreign land with few friends, many rivals, and ever-shifting loyalties, Louise soon learns the perils of her new role. Yet she is too clever—and too ambitious—to be merely a pawn in the intrigues of others. With the promise of riches, power, and even the love of a king, Louise dares to create her own destiny in a dangerous dance of intrigue between two kings—and two countries.

One of the regular subjects that I have seen discussed over the last couple of years in various forums is the fact that there are so many Tudor books around. Don't get me wrong, I still love to read a well written book on Henry VIII and his wives, but there are other very interesting English kings that don't seem to get anywhere near as much attention as Henry VIII. There are probably lots of other very interesting figures from history outside of English royalty that we don't hear about enough either.

One such king that I have only had small glimpses of in the past is the Merry Monarch, Charles II. He first came to my attention when I watched a mini-series that featured the very, very tasty Rufus Sewell as Charles II. Then there were glimpses in Forever Amber , enough to make me want to know more. And what a story it is. His father was dethroned and Charles II had to live in exile. Then Charles II was returned and he proceeded to have mistresses all over the place, whilst remaining married to his Queen. The long running struggle between Catholics and Protestants continued throughout his reign, especially when his heir came to the throne following Charles' death.

So what about this book? This is the third book in Susan Holloway Scott's ongoing series about the loves of Charles II, and features Louise de Keroualle. She was a young French lady who was a maid of honour to Charles sister, Henrietta, Duchess D'Orlean, known as Madame, who was married to the brother of Louis XIV (known as Monsieur). Louise came from a poor but noble family, and finds herself overwhelmed and overlooked at the French court, but she soon comes to be one of Madame's closest companions. When Henrietta travels to England to negotiate an integral treaty between her homeland and her adopted country, Louise accompanies her and so is introduced to the very handsome and virile King of England, Charles II.

Following the death of Henrietta, Louise finds herself sent back to England with a dual purpose. The first is to be a 'gift' to Charles, and the second is to be a spy for France. And so begins a love affair that stood the test of time, and the challenges associated with trying to love an English King but still serve the French nation. Even when Charles' attention strayed, he returned time and again to Louise.

The Charles that we see in this novel is a man of contradictions. He seems to have had unflagging energy (and he needed it with all those mistresses to keep happy, and the resulting children to be actively involved with), and appears to have an incredible charisma when it comes to charming the ladies. And yet, he obviously had his own personal integrity, stubbornly choosing to not put his queen aside despite the lack of an heir.

Having not read any of the other books in the series (yet!), it took me a few pages to get used to the way that the story was told. I was also a little uncomfortable with the first portion of the book that was set in the French court. I have read about Monsieur, Duc D'Orleans in other novels set in the French court, namely the Angelique novels, by Sergeanne Golon and he is inevitably portrayed as a very unlikeable character. It is no different here, but in a way it was a very intimate glimpse into a disastrously unhappy royal marriage and in some ways that was quite confronting to read.

Once the action moved away from the French court, Louise, and this book, really came into their own, becoming a very assured and confident lady and story. Without being graphic there was no doubt of the attraction between Charles and Louise, no doubt of the jealousy at Court as Louise is granted honours and gifts, and no doubt of the rivalry between Louise and the other established mistresses of the King, chief among them Barbara Palmer (Lady Castlemaine) and the actress Nell Gwynn.

If there was any other criticisms of this book, it is that the ending was quite rushed, and it would have been really interesting to see what happened to Louise once Charles died. I guess though, the fact that I wanted to read more about Louise, can be taken both as a bad thing and a good thing. The book was cut a little short, but I enjoyed the book enough to want to read more.

In the end I found this an enjoyable read, and I am now in the process of acquiring the first two books in the series. I will definitely be looking for the next book, which Susan has revealed will be called The Countess and the King about Catherine Sedley and should be released next year.

This is one of the books that I read for the Pub09 Challenge.

Thanks so much to the author for sending me an ARC of this book.

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!

Eva is on holidays this week, so you are stuck with me for the second week in a row! Luckily I have been to the library twice this week so there is plenty of loot (and some reloot) to talk about! There are actually four books already waiting at the library to be picked up the next time I go there, but more about those next week!

So my loot this week is:




The Suspect by Michael Robotham - I have heard such good things about this Australian author's books, particularly Shatter but that book is a later book in the series. This book is the first book, because I have to read series in order.











The Company by Arabella Edge - When I was in Perth a couple of weeks ago, one of the things that we did was go to the Shipwrecks Gallery. The centrepiece of the museum is a small part of the Batavia, a ship from the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC). I now would like to read about the VOC, and this is the first book I have chosen to read.







Bluey's War by Herb Hamlet - My cousin dropped this book off for my grandmother to read while I was over in Perth visiting. I also think that this book my fit for the War Through the Generations Challenge.








The Lieutenant's Lover by Harry Bingham - I have had this book on my TBR list for ages, but I was reminded to actually borrow it by a review that I saw recently. Unfortunately I didn't write down when I saw the review! I think that this book will count for the War Through the Generations challenge as well.







Company of Liars: A Novel of the Plague by Karen Maitland - This book is Book of the Month for August over at Historical Fiction Online. I have heard lots and lots of good things about it!











A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson - Wow, I am getting slack. Normally I am quite good at writing down where I saw the review that prompted me to request a book, but for the second time in this post I can't remember who inspired me!






My loot this week outnumbers my reloot which I am taking to be a good sign! My reloot for this week is:






The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland - for Art History challenge














Angelique in Revolt by Sergeanne Golon - the next Angelique book













Emma by Kaoru Mori - I started reading this book last time I had it out but couldn't finish it in time.















Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland - I swear I am going to read this book this time!








How about you? What did you get out of the library this week? Add your link to Mr Linky below:

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!

My teaser this week comes from The Dark Rose, the second book in the Morland Dynasty series by Cynthia Harrod Eagles. I read the first book a few months ago and really enjoyed it. Where the last book focused on the period during the War of the Roses started, this one is set during Henry VIII and features many of the names from that period that are still famous, or in some cases infamous, even today. My teaser comes from page 362:

The night wore on, and they sat quietly, barely pretending to sew any more, waiting for dawn when they could hear mass again, wating for the light to steal into the little chamber, waiting for the last day to reak. When the sky had grown pearly outside, and there was a new smell in the air, the poignant, heart-breaking smell of morning, the Queen lifted her head wearily and said,

" Do you remember Calais? It was growing light when he came."

The theme for this month's Card Swap was Christmas in July. Now I must confess that I was pretty unexcited about this theme because I find it hard enough to make up a design when I need to for Christmas let alone when I have to make another lot as well! I actually did have a good idea but it really didn't happen for a couple of reasons. The first reason was that I wanted to use one of my sister's stamps and she wasn't sure if she was going to end up using it for the workshop that she was designing. The second, and probably major reason, was that the only weekend I had to make all my card swap cards was the weekend that I ended up going away for, so needless to say last week I was trying to figure out how on earth I was going to get them made in time for Friday night!

In the end I ended up using a design that I already had four cards made of, so instead of having to make 11 in almost no time, I only had to make 7! The strange thing is that as soon as I was worried about making them all identical I kept on making errors, but I guess that is part of the good thing about hand made - everything is unique.



The workshop for this month was really good. My sister designed it herself and the idea was to give some out of the ordinary ideas for Christmas, so we made a gift box, the lid, and the bow to go on top, a gift card holder, a Christmas tag and a card. I am not sure if she is going to submit it to the company she works for or not, so I will see if she is happy for me to post them here or not. I will definitely be making the gift card holder again, because is such a good idea for those times when you get a gift card. It's made using an envelope so it is a very easy way to make something a bit mundane a little more special.

Some what unusually for me, I also made a card that wasn't for card swap this month! Shocking I know. Actually, originally I was just messing around trying a couple of new techniques that I learnt when we went to Paperific craft show last month. I bought a few different things to try and hadn't had time to play before now, but I really like the results of this one when I put it together.

The first technique is creating backgrounds using Twinkling H2Os, which are a watercolour type base that has a bit of a metallic sheen to it when it dries. You can also use these to colour images or like I have to create a background. The lady who we saw demonstrating it at the show has obviously had a lot of practice as she was able to just swish the brush over the paper using a couple of different colours and voila, fabulous even graduation of colour as a background. I have used three colours on this one, but I need to practice blending a little but I am relatively happy with it given that it was the first time I tried it!

Even though I am not that good a photographer, I am really happy that you can see a little bit of the shimmer, especially if you click on the image so that it enlarges, although if you do that you will also see a few bits of glitter that weren't heat set that I didn't rub off yet!

The second technique was using a new to me product called Heat Set Glue. It comes in a white powder form, almost like embossing powder, but instead of becoming solid when it is heated, the glue powder melts, which then enables you to sprinkle glitter over the glue. You then heat it again and the glue sets with the glitter inside it, so your glitter is stuck fast to the card and will not just brush off. So now I have the option of either embossing to get texture, or using the heat set glue to get a really glittery image!

I have used these dragon fly stamps before because I just love them, and I am sure that you will see them again at some point, maybe even in a similar fashion to these.


I am very excited about a new stamp set that I just received yesterday, but I am going to play with those a little before I unveil those!

My big challenge this month is to make a cool and groovy 40th birthday card for a friend. I have an idea but a lot of times I have trouble translating the idea into actuality! I will also need to make a male card for the next card swap so I will be off trawling the net looking for some inspiration. It is so much easier to make girls cards!

This week's Weekly Geeks theme is a good one, asking Where in the World Have You Been? in your reading.

This week's Weekly Geeks asks you to tell us about your globe trotting via books. Are you a global reader? How many countries have you "visited" in your reading? What are your favorite places or cultures to read about? Can you recommend particularly good books about certain regions, countries or continents? How do you find out about books from other countries? What countries would you like to read that you haven't yet?

Use your own criteria about what you consider to be "visiting" -- whether a book is written about the country or by a native or resident of the country.

For fun, create one of these maps at this website ticking off the countries you've read books from - you might be surprised how many (or how few!) countries you've read. Include the map in your blog post if you're so inclined.

So here's my map, based on the books that I have read in the last 18 months:



The one obvious gap is books set in South America, and Africa is probably a little under represented, although I did read a couple of books set in other African countries, but just not in the last couple of years. Other than that the map is pretty full. Of course, it helps when you block out huge blocks of the map with some of the larger countries like China, Russia, USA and Canada.

I think I am pretty open to reading books about most countries - as long as the story is a good one, then I will read it. I do particularly like books set in Russia and Europe, especially if it is historical fiction.

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!

First of all, I want to apologise for not getting around to visit any other Library Looters last week. I didn't have any internet access at all last week and had to survive checking my emails and Facebook on my phone, which is definitely not conducive to blog hopping. I am dreading receiving my next phone bill!

Prior to that, I have visited quite a few of you who have commented that, like me, you tend to end up borrowing the same books over and over because you have to return them unread. I have every intention of reading books when I borrow them, but sometimes it just doesn't happen. Some times I come to regret that particularly when I end up really loving a book. For example, I think I borrowed The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley three times at least before I actually read it, and I just loved it, which means that I really should have read it the first time I borrowed it!

My point with all that, is that I have been thinking about a term to use for those books - the ones you end up reborrowing - so today, my library loot is split into new loot, and reloot!

My new loot this week is:



Wild and Wicked in Scotland by Melody Thomas - I just recently read the first book in this series. While it wasn't the best book, I have enjoyed Melody Thomas' writing enough previously to give her another go!











Devil May Cry by Sherrilyn Kenyon - I can't quite believe that I only finished my first Kenyon for the year last week! What is going on?









My reloot is:





The Winding Ways Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini













Fishing for Stars by Bryce Courtney







The scary thing about my Library Loot this week is that I picked these books up last night, and there are already 5 books waiting to be picked up next time I go!

If you would like to share your loot, please add your link to Mr Linky below:

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!

My teaser this week comes from The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee. It is set in WWII and early 1950s Hong Kong and so far is an interesting read. The teaser comes from page 243:

He reached behind and took her hands off his back. He did things like that a lot, gestures that felt like rebukes, ways to keep a distance between them.

After a whirlwind trip to Perth we are back. We had a really good time, balanced between spending time with my grandparents, dad and other family members and making sure that the ten year old wasn't too bored by doing some fun things! More details will follow later I am sure.

I managed to read a couple of books and I was planning to post about them when I found something far more interesting to talk about! I am sure that a lot of people will already have heard about this, but I have to thank Libby from Historicalfictiononline.com who pointed me in the direction of an interview with the totally delectable Richard Armitage over at Vulpes Libris. He talks about what he likes to read, and some of the roles he has played!

Click here to read the interview.

He just seems like an all round nice guy! Le sigh!

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!

This week's Mr Linky is going to be up at Eva's blog, so head on over there to add your name to the list!

I thought I would start with something a bit more like anti library loot! This pile of books here are the books that I am having to return unread to the library as I drive past the library on the way to the airport this week!



It's fair to say that I have had a VERY average reading month so far. I haven't actually finished a single book yet. I am hoping that that might change while I am away as I will have at least 7 hours reading time on the flights, although they are early morning and late night flights so that might not happen either.

Of course, not reading doesn't mean I am not borrowing! Here are the books that I picked up this week:




Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich - I stopped buying this series a few books ago, but they are generally still feel good reads. I was pretty early on the list of requests for this one so I am getting a nearly new book to read.












Kissing Sin by Keri Arthur - the second Riley Jensen book. This series is set in Melbourne and so has added interest to me.














City of Bones by Cassandra Clare - I have borrowed this book before but had to return it unread. Second time lucky perhaps?









The Man from Stone Creek by Linda Lael Miller - I recently read and really enjoyed the third or fourth book in this series. Now I am going back to the beginning!











Love Walked in by Marisa de los Santos - I saw a review for this over at Medieval Bookworm and decided that it sounded good so added it straight to the request list.














Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber - this is kind of part of the Blossom Street series. Haven't read one of those for a while so thought I would give it a go.










The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - I really enjoyed Half of a Yellow Sun and this is her new book. I am the first person to borrow it as well! Yay!

Historical Tapestry is turning 2 and we have a really busy week coming up!

Head on over and check out the giveaways, the guest posts and an exciting new feature announcement! (At least we think it is exciting LOL!)

Talking of excitement, when I got out of bed today I was planning to have a couple of days off this week and not do too much other than spend time on the computer, but that all changed while I was having a shower! Suddenly I just got this feeling that I really, really need to go to Perth.

That in itself isn't all that surprising. I originally come from there, and a lot of my family lives there including my dad, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, and my grandparents who are 89 and 99 years of age. Every now and again I think about going back because I haven't been over for a few years, but for whatever reason I haven't been able to. Today though, I had the thought, and now we are going for 5 days! Of course, I should be packing instead of blogging, but you have to have your priorities right.

I will be trying to schedule a couple of posts at least, but we will see how we go really.

In other exciting news, I bought two new tops tonight, both of which were smaller than the size I normally wear! Woo-hoo!

It's been a good day. Anyway, I need to go and pack because tomorrow night we are going to see WWE Wrestling so there won't be any time to pack then!

But a challenge none the less!

The lovely ladies at Lights, Camera...History have come up with this challenge where the idea is to watch between 2 and 12 period drama movies in the twelve months from 1 July 2009. You can choose between a variety of different levels and a variety of different themes. For full details click here.

At this point I have said that I will choose the Becoming Interested option, with my themes being Victorian Mist and Kings and Queens. I probably will try to fit in a Bonnets and Hessian viewing as well (Regency).

I am half considering combining this with the Everything Austen challenge, because I still haven't managed to read any Austen yet and there is a movie component in that challenge as well. I haven't yet decided to commit to this one, but there is every possibility that I will!

How is it that Jon Bon Jovi still looks so great??

I have been having a very musical couple of days. Yesterday I spent the whole day listening to Keith Urban, this morning it was a preview of Rob Thomas's new album then a whole heap of his old songs, and then I came across this clip that I thought that some of you might be interested in.

Bon Jovi have recorded a version of Stand By Me that is available for free download in support of the Iranian people. The other person singing is an exiled Iranian singer called Andy Madadian and part of the song is being sung in Farsi

While it may have looked like there wasn't much happening post wise in the last couple of days, I have been busy behind the scenes writing a guest post for Rosie's Riveters.

Aarti from Booklust is a long time book friend and she has come up with a fabulous idea. In her words:

Rosie's Riveters is a weekly posting written by Booklust readers about riveting females in literature. Many readers have strong reactions to the women in the books they read- either very positive or very negative. These are the characters we find riveting, for good reasons or bad ones, and they form the population of Rosie's Riveters. Through this weekly post, we can discuss females we love to hate, or love to love. And maybe, just maybe- we can determine why we react so strongly to them.

The female character that I have chosen to feature in my Rosie's Riveters post is a character from history, Eleanor of Aquitaine.

You can check out my guest post here.

I have had history on the mind this week. Normally that is because I am reading a historical fiction book, but this time it is more recent than that - it is my own history. This isn't just a random thing, but rather than I was friended on Facebook by a person from my teenage years, and to be honest it has kind of spooked me a little.

I have no idea whether this person knows it or not, but he was my first love. Even if I had of found something about him on the net, I would have just read it, stored it away, but I never would have contacted him, so it is kind of strange that he contacted me. Over the years I have heard snippets about what he is up to because my mother sees him occasionally. That in itself really annoys me because she always tells me how well he has done for himself, but when we were going out, she did everything, and I mean everything she could to break us up, and said some truly horrible things about him. I had to think about whether I was going to accept or not, mainly because just the thought of seeing him again, or even just chatting to him, for the first time in 20 plus years freaks me out! This isn't about the possibility of something happening with him because he is married with kids, and lives in another city, but just running into him somewhere would see me running to hide pretty much. Part of that is because I am not proud of my appearance, but I am trying to do something about that now.

I know I am not alone in over thinking things like this. I'm not sure if it is because I have been by myself for so long now, or just because I am a girl, or because he was my first love, or what, but it seems that for the short term at least I will be revisiting my past, or at least the pleasant parts.

No matter what else happens, it has to have been a good reading month when you get a 5/5 read during the month, and I even managed to write a couple of reviews as well! Go me!

The books I read in June were:

Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer 3.5/5
In the Woods by Tana French 4/5
To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt 4/5
Imitation in Death by J D Robb 4/5
Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur 4.5/5
Betrayed by P C Cast and Kristin Cast 4/5
The Bridegroom by Linda Lael Miller 4/5
A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander 4/5
Made to be Broken by Kelley Armstrong 4.5/5
A Hollow Crown by Helen Hollick 4/5
The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley 5/5
Sin and Scandal in England by Melody Thomas 3/5
The French Mistress: A Novel of the Duchess of Portsmouth and King Charles II by Susan Holloway Scott 4/5

I don't think I have made a lot of progress on my challenges this month.

I am still working my way towards completion of the 100+ Challenge. At the end of June I have completely 74 books so far this year, so three quarters of the way there.

I did manage to finish a couple of challenges though. The first was The Victorian Challenge. The three books I read for that were The Water Horse by Julia Gregson, Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn and, this month, A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander.

The second challenge that I completed this month was the Pub 09 challenge. The idea of this challenge was to read 9 books that were being published this year. Both The Bridegroom and The French Mistress fit this criteria, so another challenge done! (Completely irrelevant question warning! Am I the only person who always wants to type bridgegroom instead of bridegroom?)

There is one other challenge that is now complete and that is the I Suck At Challenges challenge! Thanks to Chris from Book-a-rama for coming up with such a fun idea!

I have to say that my current challenges section on my sidebar is looking decidely bare now. Maybe I need to go and find some new challenges to join in on. Any suggestions?

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!

As far as my own Library Loot goes this week, I have a bit of a mixed bag genre wise as well.




Chosen by PC Cast and Kristin Cast - next book in the House of Night series (YA)













An Affair Before Christmas by Eloisa James - I always think I should like Eloisa James' books better than I really do. After a break of a few months, I am thinking that maybe, just maybe, this book will work for me. (Romance)










Named of the Dragon by Susanna Kearsley - After loving The Winter Sea so much I just had to look at the library catalogue to see what other books were available from her. The answer is a bit disappointing because this is actually the only other one on the catalogue. I will just have to buy all the others! (Not 100% sure what genre this one is really)








Harold the King by Helen Hollick - another chunkster from Helen Hollick. I read A Hollow Crown a week or so again and enjoyed it, so now I am trying to read the rest of her backlist as well. (Historical Fiction)











The Rabbits by John Marsden - The reason why I have borrowed this book is because it is illustrated by Shaun Tan, and I just love his work. The good thing about this book is that I should be able to read it in about 10 or 15 minutes, but then I might need to look through it a couple of more times before I actually return it! (Children's book)