The Sunday Salon

The Sunday Salon – Snowocalypse

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I had a whole weekend of reading planned to keep me busy during the snow storm but didn’t do much reading at all. I have a few pages left in The Coral Thief by Rebecca Stott which I plan on finishing this morning but that was the extent of it this weekend.

The reason for the abandonment of my beloved books – SNOW! Yes, we got snow here in Washington, DC. About 20+ inches in the end. So instead of talking about books this Sunday, I’m going to share a few pictures from Snowocalypse 2010.

Friday night we decided to venture out for a short walk to a favorite neighborhood place.  This is a street in our neighborhood.  A real winter wonderland.

The best closing sign ever. 🙂

Saturday afternoon we took a walk downtown to see if we could get tickets to the Georgetown/Villanova basketball game.  Unfortunately, the game was sold out but we did get some good pics.  Thanks to the snow there are a ton of trees down all over the city.  This one on someone’s car.

The best way to get around on Saturday afternoon.

On the way home, we made a pass by the White House.  This picture was taken in Lafayette Square in front of the White House.

The best part of the day — snow ball fight in Dupont Circle!  About 2,000 people showed up to toss snow at each other.  So much fun!  Later we saw it on CNN and several people called to find out if we went.  Yep, we did.  🙂

Enjoy your Sunday!  I’m off to finish a book.

The Sunday Salon – January Wrap-up

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Since today is the 31st, I thought I’d do a monthly wrap-up. Looking over the list, I’m surprised by all I read this month. I think I may have been trying to make up for not reading a lot in December. Here’s what I read this month.

Tender is the Night by F. Scott. Fitzgerald

Versailles by Kathryn Davis

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

The Wild Hunt by Elizabeth Chadwick

The Wife’s Tale by Lori Lansens

The Black Tower by Louis Bayard

Ligeia from The Tales of Edgar Allen Poe by Edgar Allen Poe (short story)

The Fall of the House of Usher from The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe by Edger Allen Poe (short story)

The Midnight Guardian: A Millennial Novel by Sarah Jane Stratford

Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell

Noah’s Compass by Anne Tyler

Conspirata: A Novel of Ancient Rome by Robert Harris

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

That’s 12 books and 2 short stories for January. Not a bad month of reading really. I reviewed 5 books and plan to write a few more reviews in the next week or so.

I had planned to read only library books this month and then read my own books in February. That plan has not worked out like I thought it would. I read 2 of my own books and a few short stories and then I did borrow a few books from the library when I was not really planning to. I’m not very good at returning books to the library and leaving empty handed. All those books are there just waiting to read after all. 🙂 Oh well, in the end, it’s been good reading even if my plan didn’t work out.

Happy Sunday everyone!

The Sunday Salon: The Short Post

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Today is going to be a short re-cap since my day is turning out to be much busier than I anticipated it would be.

So, here’s what I read this week:

Finished Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell. I liked it but not as much as a few of his other books but still good.

Read The Midnight Guardian: A Millennial Novel by Sarah Jane Stratford. Vampires trying to bring down the Third Reich…it was not what I expected but interesting.

In honor of Edgar Allen Poe’s birthday, I read two short stories of his — Legeia and The Fall of the House of Usher.

I also read a book on my new Nook, Noah’s Compass by Anne Tyler. I liked it and reading it on the Nook was a nice experience. I plan to do a longer post about the Nook itself to let you know what I thought of it. It’s still new and I think I need to give it a few more days before I rush into a review of it. I’m still trying to figure out all it’s little quirks after all.

I’m moving on to Conspirata by Robert Harris this week and I hope to start The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery at some point.

That’s it for me this week. Happy reading!

The Sunday Salon

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Earlier this week I was looking at the stack of books sitting on the corner of the desk waiting to be read and realized I was putting them in order. There was a mystery, a fantasy, and some historical fiction. I don’t like to read books that are similar back to back, unless I’m reading a series, and I purposely look for something different when I finish one and move on to another. I know that’s probably fairly common. For me it just makes reading that much more enjoyable, always something new. I try for a diverse reading list but do read a lot more fiction than non-fiction and I’m hoping to change that this year.

The Wife's Tale

For this week’s round-up: I finished The Black Tower by Louis Bayard and The Wife’s Tale by Lori Lansens and started Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell. Both were good but I really loved The Wife’s Tale. Lansens has a way of making you feel completely uncomfortable with her characters and then you fall in love with them. I almost abandoned the book because it was so depressing (it’s about a morbidly obese woman whose husband leaves her on the eve of their 25th wedding anniversary) but I felt like I couldn’t. I was already hooked and even though I felt like I was watching the events through my fingers laced across my face, I had to keep going. It’s a very good book and I’m glad I stuck with it.

The Black Tower

The Black Tower was about Louis the Seventeenth, the long lost son of Marie Antoinette and Louis the Sixteenth. It was a good mystery but by the end of the book I couldn’t decide if I liked any of these people or not. For me, the events were much more interesting than the characters although it was a very interesting list of characters. It was still a good read and I plan to do a longer review of it in the coming weeks. I don’t read many mysteries so this was a nice change for me.

On my reading list this week: Finish Stonehenge by Cornwell and start The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbury and The Midnight Guardian by Sarah Jane Stratford. I gave in and bought myself a copy of The Swan Thieves and while I promised myself that I would read all my library books this month and leave my own for February, I maybe breaking that truce to start this one.

Anything good on your list this week?

The Sunday Salon

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A happy week of reading for me. I finished up The Hobbit on Monday night for the Lord of the Rings Read-Along, read Maeve Binchy’s Heart and Soul which was nice and comforting, and started The Wild Hunt by Elizabeth Chadwick. I also managed to snag some good library loot.

I spent a lot of time thinking about my reading habits for some reason this past week. A lot of bloggers are talking about cutting back, reading deliberately, and so on. Guess it got me thinking. I generally read what I want, take breaks a lot, and go on the occasional binge. The library seems to be one such binge this month. I stayed away from the library for most of December knowing I wouldn’t have time to read and now that January is here, I’ve gone overboard. In addition to the books I have out and the holds that came in, I still have a few holds out and a list ready to go for the next round. I decided that what I’m going to do is make January a library book month. I plan to finish all the books I have out and not check out any more out until March. February is going to be a read my own books month. It’s not as if I don’t have any…

There’s a very good chance that I will not stick to this plan whatsoever. In fact, I’m sure I won’t and, when February dawns, I will still be reading my library books and my books that I waited forever to get, will still be sitting on the shelf. This is why I don’t make resolutions — I never stick to them. Either way, I’m going to try my little plan out for at least two months and see how far I get and have already promised myself that no guilt will be involved. In the end, I’m still reading the books I want to.

The Sunday Salon

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This was a good reading week but not as good as I had hoped it would be. I finished three books and have been slowly making my way through a fourth. I was off all week using up some extra vacation time but, after having gotten a cold while visiting family, I didn’t get in as much reading as I thought I would. Instead, I spent hours sitting on the couch sniffling and watching marathons of Mythbusters and the Dog Whisperer since my brain was mush thanks to cold medicine.

I finally wrapped up Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I didn’t like it as much as The Great Gatsby but it was still good. I read The House on Tradd Street by Karen White which was really enjoyable and I think I’ll probably be reading her next book too. I also read Versailles by Kathryn Davis. It was an odd book — sort of setup as a mini memoir of Marie Antoinette but there were also these small vignettes with people entering stage right and left leaving you with part of a strange conversation as if it were something overheard at the palace. Somehow it all worked though. Finally, I’m reading The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien but I’m taking my time so not much progress but I’m enjoying it.

Since I didn’t do a December wrap-up I thought I’d do that here today. I read eight books total and posted reviews of four. For December 2009, here’s what I read:

The Devil’s Alphabet by Daryl Gregory

Star Trek: The Great Adventures, Book 1 by James Blish

Vagabond by Bernard Cornwell

Heretic by Bernard Cornwell

The Taker and the Keeper by Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin

Powers by John B. Olson – DNF

Into the Path of Gods by Kathleen Cunningham Guler

The House on Tradd Street by Karen White

I’m anxiously awaiting the delivery of my Nook and, now that it’s January, I’ll be checking the mail everyday for a package. I have a monstrous list of books to download for it and I can’t wait till it gets here.

I’ve got two book reviews to finish and two more to write, so that’s it for this week as I’ve got some writing to do.

The Sunday Salon: On Monday

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After a car trip and a lot of unpacking, I just didn’t have it in me to do a post yesterday, so Monday it is.

We had a great holiday full of visiting family and, I have to admit, I didn’t read any books at all last week. I got in a few pages of Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald and the first chapter of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien but that was it.

I didn’t get any books for Christmas but I did get a lot of gift cards to buy books so I’m just as excited. I have a huge list waiting to go and will probably give in and order a few before the week is out.

For my birthday earlier this month, my husband bought me a Nook. 🙂 The way it’s looking right now, I’ll probably have it by Valentine’s Day.  😦 It says it will be shipping in January but I’m skeptical, what can I say, but I’m still very excited. I’m going to save at least one of the gift cards so I can buy a boatload of books for the Nook too.

I’m off all this week using up the last of my vacation days for the year and plan to make a trip to the library for some books too. I finished up all the books I had out a few weeks ago and decided that since I was busy with the holidays, I would just wait until this week to make a library run. I have my list ready and can’t wait to share the loot when I get my little hands on it. I haven’t done a library loot post in so long I feel as if I’m going into withdrawal.

I have two reviews to write up for this week along with a list of my favorite books of the year. For now, I’ll be retiring to the couch to lounge in my new, very fluffy and very comfy robe to spend some good quality time with a book.

The Sunday Salon: Snowed In

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For once, the weather forecast was right. We got snow! About 16 inches which is a lot for Washington, DC.

One good thing — lots of reading. Well, actually, that would be a good thing if I did that but instead we spent most of it outside. I plan to bake some cookies and wrap gifts later today (just call me Martha) so probably not much reading today either.

I was hoping to finish two books this week but parties, shopping, and the snow sort of took over. I’m still trying to decide if I want to finish Powers by John B. Olson. I have about 100 pages to go but it lost my attention around page 99. I put it to the side and picked up Into the Path of Gods by Kathleen Cunningham Guler. It’s fine but not moving too fast for me. I was excited to read both of these — I won both on Librarything; one is an early reviewers copy and the other is a member giveaway. I put off reading them a bit but thought I’d finish them up before the end of the year. I guess it remains to be seen whether or not I actually do that. With the holiday later in the week, a long car trip, and lots of family and friends to visit, it will most likely be a hectic week with minimal reading.

Since I don’t have much to report on the reading front. I thought I’d share a few snow pictures instead. Enjoy your Sunday.