Musing Mondays (September 27)

 Musing Mondays is hosted by Miz B in Should be Reading.

The musing this week asks about book suggestions.

If your book group asked you to bring two (2) suggestions for group reads to your next meeting, what two books would you suggest? Why?

I don't have a book group as of the moment (and I would love to belong in one) but if I were to suggest two books it will be the following:

1. The Gift of Acabar - Og Mandino (with Buddy Kaye)

This is a bittersweet story by the late Og Mandino on family, loss and letting go. It'd be nice to know if others would tear up like I did while reading the book. There's a Credenda in the book that's one of my favorite poems, if I may call it as such. It's kind of like Desiderata in format. Touches my heart everytime I read it.

2. Juliet - Anne Fortier

I'm still currently in page 88 so far. I saw a lot of blog posts on this book thus I decided to buy it. I'm not disappointed so far. The mystery is keeping me on my toes and yet I can't seem to breeze through the book. Time is my enemy! I would want to know if other readers will have the same reaction like I did that's why I chose this one. The book cover is also gorgeous by the way.

 

If you want to see other book suggestions, please visit our host's blog!

Monday Movie Meme: Stolen Goods

It's been quite sometime since I last participated in Monday Movie Meme. I miss it! This week, it's all about heists, robberies and capers. I love heist movies. The suspense, the adrenaline rush and the great twists in the ending are just some of the things that keep me hook. 

Here are my choices in any order:

1. The Italian Job (2003)

2. The Perfect Score (2004)

3. Ocean's Trilogy (2001, 2004, 2007)

4. Point Break (1991)

5. So Close (2002)

6. Inception (2010)

7. The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

8. The Fast and the Furious (2001)

9. Entrapment (1999)

10. Hackers (1995)

11. Plunkett & Macleane (1999)

For more Heist and Capers, please visit the The Bumbles blog.

Thursday 13: 13 Best First Lines from Novels

American Book Review featured "100 Best First Lines from Novels" and among the hundred I chose 13 for this week's Thursday 13.

1. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice(1813)
2. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. — Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)
3. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. — Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett)
4. It was a pleasure to burn. — Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
5. It was love at first sight. — Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (1961)

6. Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person. — Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups (2001)

7. "When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets," Papa would say, "she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing." — Katherine Dunn, Geek Love (1983)

8. Of all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, I've come to learn, is women. — Charles Johnson, Middle Passage (1990)

9. Psychics can see the color of time it's blue. — Ronald Sukenick, Blown Away(1986)
10. In the town, there were two mutes and they were always together. — Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940)
11. Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space. — Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye (1988)

12. In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. — F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

13. You better not never tell nobody but God. — Alice Walker, The Color Purple(1982)

What's your list for this week?

Teaser Tuesdays: Juliet

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
1. Grab your current read.
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page.
4. You also need to share the title of the book that you're   getting your "teaser" from, that way people can   have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given.
5. Spoilers not allowed! XD

The book I've been waiting for finally arrived and I'm diving into it immediately. Here's a teaser:

"In the eyes of the crowd she was no less beautiful now than she had been before, but it was evident to the painter - who had not seen her since the night before the fatal Palio - that hers had become the stony beauty of Athena, rather than the smiling charms of Aprhodite."

p. 247, Juliet by Anne Fortier

What's your teaser this Tuesday? For more Teaser Tuesdays, please visit: Should Be Reading

Follow Friday: The Juvenile and The Mature

It's time to hop: Follow Friday! Join the fun and make new book blogger friends. Follow the simple steps below:

1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Host { Parajunkee.com } and any one else you want to follow on the list.

2. Follow Parajunkee.com's Featured Blogger for this week: http://baileysbookreviews.blogspot.com.

3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.

4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say "Hi" in your comments.

5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can.

6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love... and the followers.

This week, PJV asks: Favorite YA or do you stick to adult reads? 

It really depends on the story. I thought I'll find YA books cheesy but there are really great YA books out there that are definitely worth reading. I started early on the adult reads. I was still in high school when I started reading Johanna Lindsey, to which my English teacher said: "But she's so explicit." And true, but her stories are good. My favorite YA book is Twilight. Okay, don't judge me please. I believe the book is good but it was just overblown because of the movie (Kristin is wrong for Bella and Robert is okay but they could've hired a better actor for the role). You can compare it to an overplayed song in the radio. You know it's good but a lot of people likes it so it loses its exclusivity.


TGIF! Enjoy your weekend!

Thursday 13: 13 Covers of U2's All I Want is You

U2 is one of my favorite bands. A legend in the music industry. Of all the U2 songs, my all time favorite is "All I Want You". The song just simply wrenches my heart out and brings me to 7th heaven. My statement sort of clashes, but I think most people will understand what I'm trying to say.

While tinkering with Apple's latest addition to iTunes, Ping, I realize that several bands have tributes to U2's songs. I went to Wikipedia, researched and found out that there are exactly 13 different covers of "All I Want You". Perfect enough to be my topic for this week's Thursday 13.

Here's a stub from Wikipedia:

"All I Want Is You" is the 17th song on U2's 1988 album, Rattle and Hum and was released in 1989 as the album's fourth and final single. It is the closing song from the movie Rattle and Hum.

Year	Covered by	Album
1999	Absolute Rock	A Tribute to the Greatest Hits of U2
1999	Mission UK	We Will Follow: A Tribute to U2
1999	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra	Pride: The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Plays U2
1999	Tufts Beelzebubs	Infinity
2000	Kane	With or Without You
2000	Vitamin String Quartet	Strung Out on U2
2002	Bellefire	After the Rain and All I Want Is You
2004	Jars of Clay	In the Name of Love: Artists United for Africa
2005	Les Paul and Johnny Rzeznik	American Made World Played
2005	Mark Geary	Even Better Than the Real Thing Vol. 3
2006	Sugarplum Fairies	Country International Records
2007	Rockabye Baby!	Lullaby Renditions of U2
2008	Glen Campbell	Meet Glen Campbell

For more Thursday 13, please visit: http://thursday-13.com/.

BTT: Day and Night

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme hosted here: http://btt2.wordpress.com/.

This week's question:

Do you divide your books into day and night reads? How do you decide?

Before, I would read anything be it day time or night time. Time was not an issue. When I started reading Kathy Reichs' first book, Deja Dead, I realized that I don't have the stomach to read it during the night. Her descriptions of decapitated bodies and maggots had me imagining the worst  at 2 in the morning. I decided then that I will only read my bible and books that are light reads during night time. The morbid and gruesome books are reserved to be read with the sun on.

Note: By the way, I'm still not yet finished reading Deja Dead. Yes, it played tricks in my mind. Everytime I reach for it, I remember her description of the maggots squirming on the floor. Ugh! Disgusting. I wonder if I'll ever finish it.

For more BTT, please visit http://btt2.wordpress.com/.

WWW Wednesdays

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading.

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

* What are you currently reading?

* What did you recently finish reading?

* What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading? 

 

Blurb from Amazon:

Winning the Battle in your Mind. There's a War Going On And Your Mind Is The Battlefield. If you're one of millions who suffer from worry, doubt, confusion, depression, anger or condemnation, you are experiencing an attack in your mind. Overcoming negative thoughts that come against your mind brings freedom and peace. Find out how to recognize damaging thought patterns and stop them from influencing your life. In this powerful book, best-selling author and conference host, Joyce Meyer, guides you through an honest self-appraisal by sharing the trials, tragedies and ultimate victories of her own marriage, family and ministry- including the truth she learned about what she was thinking and feeling every step of the way. You'll gain insight into how Joyce won the battle in her own mind- and how you can as well. You'll also discover how to: -Find peace and stop brain-storm of mental activity. -See the truth by thinking correctly. -Use spiritual weapons effectively.

What did you recently finish reading? 

 

Blurb from Amazon:

Near strangers Honor Witherspoon and hunky computer genius Bram Bennett are temporarily forced into marriage by Honor's millionaire father. The justifications for this preposterous act are murky at best, but the result is crystal clear: instant attraction. Despite the sexuality that simmers between the pair, they hold back for much of the story. Bram is still grieving the death of his young wife, Alicia, tragically murdered eight years earlier, and the innately gregarious Honor is still suffering post-traumatic stress from a terrifying kidnapping. Even after they succumb to temptation, both resist giving their hearts to each other.

What do you think you'll read next? (Hoping that my order will arrive…)

 

Blurb from Amazon:

Fortier bobs and weaves between Shakespearean tragedy and popular romance for a high-flying debut in which American Julie Jacobs travels to Siena in search of her Italian heritage--and possibly an inheritance--only to discover she is descended from 14th-century Giulietta Tomei, whose love for Romeo defied their feuding families and inspired Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Julie's hunt leads her to the families' descendants, still living in Siena, still feuding, and still struggling under the curse of the friar who wished a plague on both their houses. Julie's unraveling of the past is assisted by a Felliniesque contessa and the contessa's handsome nephew, and complicated by mobsters, police, and a mysterious motorcyclist. To understand what happened centuries ago, in the previous generation, and all around her, Julie relies on relics: a painting, a journal, a dagger, a ring. Readers enjoy the additional benefit of antique texts alternating with contemporary narratives, written in the language of modern romance and enlivened by brisk storytelling. Fortier navigates around false clues and twists, resulting in a dense, heavily plotted love story that reads like a Da Vinci Code for the smart modern woman.