Cat Thursday

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Enjoy! This fun meme is hosted by The True Book Addict. Go over to her site to join in the fun.

My beautiful girls love their new heated blanket!

Reading Again!

Okay....I am back again and hopefully I can get myself on track to regular posting and daily reading. It is so hard to enjoy reading when things are really busy but I am determined to one day master the ability to do this.

I cannot believe that I still haven't read Catching Fire or Mockingjay!! I know I must be the only person on the planet who hasn't. Anyway I am reading Catching Fire now and enjoying getting into the lives of Katniss and Peeta and Gale and Cinna and Haymitch etc... I love getting caught up in settings and the lives of characters that are starkly different to the world we live in. Anyway, am keen to finish and move straight onto Mockingjay, even though the talk is that it doesn't quite live up to the first two books...oh well, thats the thing about a series, you have to finish it off whether or not it lives up to your expectations! :)

I am also reading a great book by Bob Tarte called Kitty Cornered. Very funny, and a must for kitty lovers.

Tune in Tuesday - Random Playlists Edition!

Tune in Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Ginger from GReads  that showcases music by posting a song on your blog in order to help spread the love of music! For the random playlists edition I made a genius playlist on iTunes based on a favourite - Good Life By One Republic and then chose 3 other songs from the playlist it generated. The other three songs are also favourites - Let it Be Me By Ray LaMontagne, First Train Home By Imogen Heap and Wild Horse By Natasha Bedingfield! How's that for random!?? Hope you enjoy :)

It's Monday, What are you reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila @ Book Journey where you can share what you are reading each week. Be sure to visit Book Journey to link up if want to join in!
Eeeeeeek! I have been so slack with my posts - sorry about that! Work has been super busy and I have been exhausted. I am reading before bed each night, but am  am too tired to take it in and then have to re-read it the next night! lol :) Oh well....I am still enjoying All That I Am by Anna Funda and The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag By Alan Bradley. Flavia is such a great character - I love the Flavia de Luce mystery series so much!

Anyway I had to go to the chemist which just happens to have a bookshop attached to it and ended up coming out with another book which I have started today - The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, By Brian Moore. I think I am really going to enjoy this book, plus it is a short one!! 

Here is the book description from Harper Collins:

Judith Hearne, a Catholic middle-aged spinster, moves into yet another bed-sit in Belfast. A socially isolated woman of modest means, she teaches piano to a handful of students to pass the day. Her only social activity is tea with the O'Neill family, who secretly dread her weekly visits.
Judith soon meets wealthy James Madden and fantasises about marrying this lively, debonair man. But Madden sees her in an entirely different light, as a potential investor in a business proposal. On realising that her feelings are not reciprocated, she turns to an old addiction - alcohol. Having confessed her problems to an indifferent priest, she soon loses her faith and binges further. She wonders what place there is for her in a world that so values family ties and faith, both of which she is without.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila @ Book Journey where you can share what you are reading each week. Be sure to visit Book Journey to link up if want to join in! 

I am well and truly back into the swing of things at work, hence the lack of reading and posts! :( No worry though, this week I am aiming to make up for it. 

I am going to put Cutting for Stone down and come back to it later - only because I find it hard to read two pretty heavily themed books at the one time as I am also still reading All That I Am by Anna Funder. Instead of Cutting For Stone, I'm going to read The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag because I have been hanging out to read some more Flavia!!! If you haven't read any of the Flavia de Luce series, then you should!! lol :)

Quote it Saturday!

Hosted by Freda's Voice

I have had a difficult week and find myself taking a step back from life to remember what is important to me and who I am. The universe has a way of helping you along when you are struggling and it took me to this beautiful quote by Audrey Hepburn. Hope you like it to.

"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone."

~Audrey Hepburn 1929 – 1993 ~

British Actress and Humanitarian

Teaser Tuesday - All That I Am By Anna Funder

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 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!

This weeks Teaser Tuesday comes from All That I Am By Anna Funder. I love it when you come across observations in a book that really resonate with you. This weeks teaser was one of those moments for me...

"Children are the only people who can see adults from inside their lives, permitted to observe every small thing, as if their forming minds are incapable of judging what they see, or as if it does not lodge there, somewhere, permanently." (p. 40)

Here is the book description from Amazon if you are interested.

When Hitler comes to power in 1933, a tight-knit group of friends and lovers become hunted outlaws overnight.  United in their resistance to the madness and tyranny of Nazism, they flee the country.  Dora, passionate and fearless; her lover, the greate playwright Ernst Toller; her younger cousin Ruth and Ruth's husband Hans find refuge in London.  Here they take awe-inspiring risks in order to continue their work in secret.  But England is not the safe-haven they think it is, and a single, chilling act of betrayal will tear them apart.

Some seventy years later, Ruth is living out her days is Sydney, making an uneasy peace with the ghosts of her past, and a part of history that has all but been forgotten.

Quote it Saturday - Children

Hosted by Freda's Voice

I am going back to work on Monday and can't wait to see the beautiful kids in my class after their holiday, so this week I thought I'd quote about children. The passage by Kahil Gibrahn is one of my favourites. If you haven't read his work in 'The Prophet', try and get yourself a copy, it is simply beautiful.

A child can ask a thousand questions that the wisest man cannot answer. 

Jacob Abbott 1803 - 1879

We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body. 

                     Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 - 1882

Your children are not your children,

they are the sons and daughters of 

life's longing for itself.

They come through you

but not from you.

And though they are with you

yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love

but not your thoughts

for they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies

but not their soul,

for their soul belongs in the house of tomorrow,

which you cannot visit

not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them

but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children

as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite

and he bends you with his might

that his arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness,

for even as he loves the arrow that flies,

so he loves also the bow that is stable.

Kahlil Gibran 1884 - 1931

The Friday 56 - Wide Sargasso Sea By Jean Rhys

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda over at Freda's Voice. The rules are simple:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56.
*Find any sentence that grabs you. (I cheat sometimes and put a little more than a sentence!)
*Post it.
*Add your post URL to the Link.

Today's Friday 56 comes from another of my favourite reads titled 'Wide Sargasso Sea' By Jean Rhys which was written as a prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre although it does also stand on it's own. Wide Sargasso Sea tells the story of Bertha Mason, who was Mr Rochester's first wife, the madwoman in the attic of Thornfield Hall. Jean Rhys uses such beautiful, sensory descriptive language and this was one of the things I loved most about Wide Sargasso Sea. 

"Christophine cried bitterly but I could not. I prayed, but the words fell to the ground meaning nothing." (p. 55/56)

Tune in Tuesday

Tune in Tuesday - Obadiah Parker

Tune in Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Ginger from GReads  that showcases music by posting a song on your blog in order to help spread the love of music! My song this week is from Obadiah Parker whose voice is just so cool! This is his cover of Hey Ya which I love! Hope you like :) 

PS Sorry I am a day late ...eeek! 

Teaser Tuesday - The Earth Hums in B Flat

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 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!

Well, here is my teaser for this week....taken from The Earth Hums in B Flat By Mari Strachan.

"'If you're clever you'll get on in this old world,' says Tada. 'No-one will think Gwennie's clever if she goes around saying she can fly and dead animals are resurrected,' said Mam. 'I think it wants me to help it,' I say. 'I think it wants a decent burial. Like we gave Siani Nanti.' (p. 56)

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila @ Book Journey where you can share what you are reading each week. Be sure to visit Book Journey to link up if want to join in! 

Well, before I talk about what I am reading this week, let me just say that I finished The Fault in Our Stars By John Green on Saturday and oh my goodness what an amazing read...just, wow! So raw, honest and heart wrenching....you have to read it. Review will be here soon :)  This week though, I am excited to be starting Cutting for Stone By Abraham Verghese and The Earth Hums in B Flat By Mari Strachan. 

Cutting for Stone By Abraham Verghese is one that I have wanted to start reading all year! Here is the book description from Amazon:

A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel—an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home.

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.

An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.

The Earth Hums in B Flat By Mari Strachan is one that has been on my TBR pile forever and is also part of my Mount TBR challenge...yay!! Here is the book description from Amazon:

The Earth Hums in B Flatis a story of dark family secrets unraveled by the shrewd insight of twelve-year-old Gwenni Morgan, a child with an irrepressible spirit living in a Welsh village that is reluctantly entering the modern age. From the small bed that she shares with her sister at night she flies up into the starry sky above her village and looks down on the lives of its inhabitants. And when the family that she babysits for is rocked by the sudden, unexplainable disappearance of their patriarch, Gwenni is determined to solve the mystery of Ifan Evan’s whereabouts. Turning amateur detective, she is unaware that the trail will lead her closer to home than she ever imagined.
Told with a breathtaking, irresistible blend of freshness and wisdom, the voice that sixty-two-year-old Welsh debut novelist Mari Strachan has created with Gwenni is vibrant, charming, and full of heart. An unforgettable character, Gwenni’s unique way of seeing the world lends her the ability to make the ordinary extraordinary. A magical novel about the trials of youth, familial duty, and understanding,The Earth Hums in B Flatwill transport you to another time and place.

Quote it Saturday - Cats

Hosted by Freda's Voice

A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.

~Ernest Hemingway 1899 – 1961~

Author and Journalist

If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow, but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.

~Mark Twain 1835 – 1910~ 

Author and Humourist

I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.

~Hippolyte Taine 1828 – 1893~

French Critic and Historian

The Friday 56

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda over at Freda's Voice. The rules are simple:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56.
*Find any sentence that grabs you. (I cheat sometimes and put a little more than a sentence!)
*Post it.
*Add your post URL to the Link.

Today's Friday 56 comes from a great book that I read a couple of years ago called 'The Poisonwood Bible' By Barbara Kingsolver. It was one of those books that sat on my TBR pile for ages and ages, but then once I finally read it I couldn't put it down and could not believe that I had let such a wonderful book sit on that pile for so long! lol :)

"The River Kwilu is not like the River Jordan, chilly and wide. It is a lazy, rolling river as warm as bathwater, where the crocodiles are said to roll around like logs. No milk and honey on the other side, either, but just more stinking jungle laying low in the haze, as far, far away as the memory of picnics in Georgia." (p.56)

In a Library By Emily Dickinson

I love Emily Dickinson's poetry so much and was reading some this afternoon when I came across this bookish themed poem that I hadn't seen before! How had I never seen it before???!!!  Anyway, hope you like it!

IN A LIBRARY.

A precious, mouldering pleasure 't is
To meet an antique book,
In just the dress his century wore;
A privilege, I think,

His venerable hand to take,
And warming in our own,
A passage back, or two, to make
To times when he was young.

His quaint opinions to inspect,
His knowledge to unfold
On what concerns our mutual mind,
The literature of old;

What interested scholars most,
What competitions ran
When Plato was a certainty.
And Sophocles a man;

When Sappho was a living girl,
And Beatrice wore
The gown that Dante deified.
Facts, centuries before,

He traverses familiar,
As one should come to town
And tell you all your dreams were true;
He lived where dreams were sown.

His presence is enchantment,
You beg him not to go;
Old volumes shake their vellum heads
And tantalize, just so.

Review: The Snow Child By Eowyn Ivey

Title: The Snow Child

Author: Eowyn Ivey

Published: Headline Review 2012

No. Pages: 432

Themes: Life, love, belief

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 5 stars

The Snow Child was one of the most beautifully written and paced stories I have read in a really long time! I was so very surprised by how much I loved it because it wasn’t a novel I had heard anything about prior to picking it up at the bookshop and to be honest, it was the beautiful cover art that initially sucked me in!

The Snow Child is based on the Russian fairytale Snegurochka which is about an old man and woman, unable to have a child of their own, who build a snow child that magically comes to life. In Ivey’s novel, the magical is masterfully weaved into the reality of a couple’s struggle through life after the loss of their own child, and you find yourself lost in a story that is ultimately very real and heartwrenching. The descriptive language is simply beautiful and the characters are so well developed that by the end of the novel you feel as though you have watched them grow throughout their entire lifetime. I don’t want to spoil the story, so I am not going to tell you anymore, but I truly recommend this book to you because you will love it!

Cat Thursday

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Enjoy! This fun meme is hosted by The True Book Addict. Go over to her site to join in the fun.

....oh, you wanted to use the computer?...sorry the computers taken, it is my personal heater....ohh you wanted to do some gardening??.....sorry plant pots taken too, it is my personal sun bed.....ohhh you wanted to go to bed???, sorry the pillows taken also, it is my personal mattress!! LOL :)

Does anyone else out there living with a beloved four legged friend have a similar problem to me??

Tune in Tuesday - Microwave Jenny

Tune in Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Ginger from GReads  that showcases music by posting a song on your blog in order to help spread the love of music!
Here is a song from a band I have just fallen in love with after a recommendation from one of my beautiful friends! They are called 'Microwave Jenny' and are an Australian duo. This song is called 'Stuck on the Moon'.

Teaser Tuesday

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 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!

Well, here is my teaser for this week....taken from Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children By Ransom Riggs.

"I thought about how my grandfather's family had been taken from him, and how because of that my dad grew up feeling like he didn't have a dad, and now I had acute stress and nightmares and was sitting alone in a falling-down house and crying hot, stupid tears all over my shirt. All because of a seventy-year-old hurt that had somehow been passed down to me like some poisonous heirloom, and monsters I couldn't fight because they were all dead, beyond killing or punishing or any kind of reckoning." (p. 104)