
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

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Monday, 29 June 2009
Wanna take a little walk with me?
So today, I thought I would take you on a little walk, hope you don't mind. Are you ready to go, do you have sensible walking shoes as it is a five mile walk? Do you have water to drink and sunscreen on as it is going to be hot? Are we ready then let's go.
I hope you enjoyed your walk, now you can go eat that tempting chocolate cake as you have earned it after all that hearty exercise.
Sunday, 28 June 2009
Sunday Salon - A long weekend

Today is planned as a calm day at home, as both my girls attended a science course yesterday down by the harbour. Hubby is out fishing, so the kids and I are just going to take it easy. I am hoping they will be keen to visit the park, so I can take my book and read.
This week I finished three books.
1) Voodoo Season by Jewell Parker Rhodes - to be reviewed later this week.
2) The Funny Thing Is.. by Ellen Degeneres -reviewed here.
3) Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr - also to be reviewed later this week followed by a giveaway.
I am presently reading two books.
1) Getting to Manana by Miranda Innes
2) Housekeeping by Marilynn Robinson
I also hope to start reading.
1)A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton
2) Angels in My Hair by Lorna Fitzgerald Byrne.
So that is my week of reading planned. Not sure how I am going to fit it in, as this really is a busy week, but I shall give it a go.
Happy Sunday Salon!
Saturday, 27 June 2009
My friends
Anyway, my nearest attempt at scrapbooking this week is making this little chocolate bar holder for my friend Yvette. Another lovely friend of mine, Fiona, gave me a template to make this holder as well as copies of the little owls. So I made this for Yvette and put her favourite chocolate in there - Wholenut Dairy Milk, as well as a Waterstones voucher for books. I am really pleased with my first attempt at this holder.
Friday, 26 June 2009
Friday Finds

Ooh you book blogging people are really bad. I have seen so many books on your sites that I want to read this week, but I have had to narrow it down to five.
Fairytale by Cyn Balog
I found this one over at Books Love Jessica Marie. It isn't released until 23rd of June in England but is already out in America - you lucky people!
It is a book that will appeal to Twilight and Wicked Lovely fans.
Here is the blurb for it from Amazon.
Morgan Sparks has always known that she and her boyfriend, Cam, are made for each other. But when Cam’s cousin Pip comes to stay with the family, Cam seems depressed. Finally Cam confesses to Morgan what’s going on: Cam is a fairy. The night he was born, fairies came down and switched him with a healthy human boy. Nobody expected Cam to live, and nobody expected his biological brother, heir to the fairy throne, to die. But both things happened, and now the fairies want Cam back to take his rightful place as Fairy King.Even as Cam physically changes, becoming more miserable each day, he and Morgan pledge to fool the fairies and stay together forever. But by the time Cam has to decide once and for all what to do, Morgan’s no longer sure what’s best for everyone, or whether her and Cam’s love can weather an uncertain future.
Now hasn't that whetted your appetite.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
I found this one over at Bermudaonions blog. There has been a lot of hype about this book, even though it has been out a few years, and it is believed to be an ideal read for teenagers as it deals with real teenage issues at secondary school. I do believe some schools are actually putting it on their curriculums.
Here is the blurb from Laurie Halse Anderson's site.
Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.

Here is what Carrie had to say about the book.
Tamsin Greene comes from a long line of witches, and she was supposed to be one of the most Talented among them. But Tamsin's magic never showed up. Now seventeen, Tamsin attends boarding school in Manhattan, far from her family. But when a handsome young professor mistakes her for her very Talented sister, Tamsin agrees to find a lost family heirloom for him. The search—and the stranger—will prove to be more sinister than they first appeared, ultimately sending Tamsin on a treasure hunt through time that will unlock the secret of her true identity, unearth the sins of her family, and unleash a power so vengeful that it could destroy them all. This is a spellbinding display of storytelling that will exhilarate, enthrall, and thoroughly enchant.
There are just so many good witch books out there at the moment.

I found this one on Books Love Jessica Marie too.
Here is the blurb from Amazon.
Ever since her mother passed away, Katie's been alone in her too-big house with her genius dad, who restores old paintings for a living. Katie takes a summer job at a garden estate, where, with the help of two brothers and a glamorous librarian, she soon becomes embroiled in decoding a mystery. There are secrets and shadows at the heart of Nothing but Ghosts: symbols hidden in a time-darkened painting, and surprises behind a locked bedroom door. But most of all, this is a love story—the story of a girl who learns about love while also learning to live with her own ghosts.
This is a heartfelt, lyrical tale from the National Book Award-nominated author of Undercover and House of Dance.

I found this one over at Dar's blog Peeking Between the Pages. If you haven't visited Dar's site you really should. She has fantastic book reviews and lots of competitions to enter. At the moment, she has a competition to win five copies of this book. the competition is here. Alas it is only open to American and Canadian residents, but Dar often has worldwide competitions too, so do go over and check out her blog.
Here is the blurb from Amazon.
Greta Cahill never believed she would leave her village in the west of Ireland until she found herself on a ship bound for New York, along with her sister Johanna and a boy named Michael Ward. Labeled a "softheaded goose" by her family, Greta discovers that in America she can fall in love, raise her own family, and earn a living. Though she longs to return and show her family what she has made of herself, her decision to spare her children knowledge of a secret in her past forces her to keep her life in New York separate from the life she once loved in Ireland, and tears her apart from the people she is closest to. Even fifty years later, when the Ireland of her memory bears little resemblance to that of present day, she fears that it is still possible to lose all when she discovers that her children—with the best of intentions— have conspired to unite the worlds she’s so carefully kept separate for decades. A beautifully old-fashioned novel, The Walking People is a debut of remarkable range and power.
So they are my Friday Finds this week, what books did you find?
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Thursday, 25 June 2009
The Funny Thing Is by Ellen Degeneres

Pages 177
Challenges - Non Fiction Five, 100+ Books.
I was intrigued to read this book after reading about it on Rebecca's site Lost in Books.
I really like Ellen Degeneres, I used to love watching her TV comedy show 'Ellen', many years ago. Do you remember the show when she used to own a book store with a coffee shop in it. How popular did that idea become. Can't visit a bookstore now without a strong smell of coffee making me gag! ( Sorry to all those coffee lovers, but the smell just makes me nauseous.)
Anyway back to the book. This really wasn't what I was expecting, which doesn't make it bad. In fact, it is a fabulous book that is really funny. The essays are hilarious and very entertaining. However, I was expecting a little insight into the life of Ellen Degeneres, a sneaky peek into Ellen's world. Alas, there is not even a tiny bit of truth in the book. It is full of stories that Ellen could easily tell on stage. I would have to be verging on the side of stupid to believe even one of her stories, even the one about Eminem bringing gazpacho to her weekly Sunday brunch.
Here is one of my favourite paragraphs.
The key to having confidence about your appearance is all in the
details.Take your nails. Nothing builds self-esteem like a beautiful set of
nails. Haven't had a manicure in a while or ever? Do it yourself by
opening the car door and dragging your nails along the pavement whenever you
slow down for a stop sign. Why spend money on emery boards when you can save
dollars a year my way.
Rebecca over at Lost in Books mentioned that you should probably try and read this book as if Ellen was actually talking to you and telling these tales and I have to agree with her. If you like to watch Ellen on stage, then this is the book for you. A funny selection of essay looking at the daft things we all do in our everyday lives. Definitely a light and easy read to lighten up your day and have you giggling to yourself, which will concern your family into thinking hysteria has set in. Enjoy!
Other reviews of this book.
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Wednesday, 24 June 2009
How our little family spent Fathers Day.
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Tuesday, 23 June 2009
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

Pages 245
First published in 1995, this copy published by Penguin in 2000
Challenges - 100+, A to Z Titles
Nick Hornby's name kept reaching out to me across the book blogging world as I know a lot of people are really big fans of his, so I had to satisfy my curiosity and pick one of his books up and read it.
High Fidelity attracted my attention, purely because of the title - taking me back to fond memories of hearing Doris singing it on Fame - the days of leg warmers and cassette players.
I picked it up, started reading it and could not put the book down. I absolutely loved every word of it.
This is the story of Rob Fleming a man drifting through his life and heading nowhere. He is in his 30's, he owns a little record shop that barely sells anything and his girlfriend has just walked out on him for the man who lives upstairs.
Rob and his two shop assistants, Barry and Dick, spend all their time making up top five lists of basically everything. After Laura leaves Rob, he makes a list of the top five breakups he has endured and goes about contacting all five of them to discover what went wrong with their relationships.
After meeting up with each ex girlfriend and the unfortunate death of' Laura's father, Laura and Rob do reunite and Rob learns from his fear of commitment and makes a promise to Laura.
Rob has just drifted all the way through his life, he ended up owning his shop after a breakup sent him down the wrong road of life. You just get the impression he just exists. His life has not moved forward since he left school. He is not married, has no children, lives in a rented apartment, still goes to gigs and still collects records. This book is definitely about him finally coming of age and doing what grownups do.
I know feel I have better insight as to what goes on in the male brain after reading this. It was just brilliant. Nick Hornby is very good at observing people in his life, he can discover their hidden quirks and turn them into hilarious actions.
As this book, is very listed based, I thought I would write a list of the five reasons why I like this book.
1) It is funny, the characters end up doing such daft things. You just can't help but giggle at their eccentricities.
2) The characters are well written. You will read about them and visually see these people existing in your life in different forms. Barry is played by Jack Black in the film version of the book, and I could see him fitting the part perfectly. He is loud, brash and full of crap!
3) The lists - I loved the lists about different things, such as best records after someone has died. Five best conversations after getting back with Laura is one of my favourites.
4) It took me back to the eighties, when I was just a teenager. I loved reading about the old record players and cassette players. I remember making up tape compositions of songs for friends to listen to.
5)The fact that it is a modern real life love story. This is how it really happens - no hearts and flowers, no swooning. Just real life relationships.
I am looking forward to my next adventure into Nick Hornby land. I have purchased About a Boy, which I hope to get to soon. Can anyone recommend any other good Nick Hornby books?
Monday, 22 June 2009
Monday Mailbox and in need of some help!


Cutting Loose by Nadine Dajani. I won this book over at Natalie's site Book, Line and Sinker.
I am really looking forward to reading it, so thank you for my book. I have been good and not bought any books this week, as I have so many to read already, as well as a large collection of library books which I reserved and they all came in at once.
I have a little dilemma and I wondered if fellow book bloggers might be able to help me find some books to fit in with a challenge. I had a good look over my A to Z challenges and came up with a list of books that I own that I can read to fill in the spaces. However, I am stuck on a a couple of letters for both author and title, so I wondered if anyone could suggest any books that could fill these spaces.
Here are the letters that I cannot find titles for. They need to begin with the following letters.
Q - Quentins - suggested by Mary - Quartet in Autumn - suggested by Kristen
X - Xingu - suggested by Kristen
Y- Year of Wonders ( which I actually own!!) and Your Oasis on Flame Lake - suggested by Kristen
Z - Zabell and Zorba the Greek suggested by Kristen
Here are the letters that I can not find authors for. Their surname has to begin with this letter.
Q - Julia Quinn and Amanda Quick - suggested by Alice Teh
U- Anne Ursa - suggested by Debi - John Updike - suggested by Alice Teh
If you can think of any titles or authors to match these letters then let me know in the comments and I will add them into the post.
I hope to get round to seeing what everyone had in their mailbox this week.
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Sunday, 21 June 2009
Sunday Salon - Once Upon a Time Challenge

I am really bad at participating in this lately, but I would definitely say it isn't my fault. With summer heading this way, quicker than I can get the cobwebs off the suntan lotion and get the ill fitting clothes out of the suitcase, my family have become the 'lets fill every minute of the weekend until we pass out with exhaustion' type of family. I end up needing the rest of the week to recover.
We had the local carnival yesterday, which involved a 2 and half hour walk around the town. Good for me in helping to get rid of the last few pounds, bad for the children as it just made them tired and grumpy. Community spirit leads the way in June and July in our little area of the world.
My girls were in the carnival representing the sea and I went along for support. I ended up collecting money on the way round and really got into the spirit of things. I am considering a new career as a carnival supporter, as I liked all the attention!
Today is Father's Day, which means I have to pamper my hubby all day long! So not much in the way of reading will be occurring this weekend.
The Once Upon A Time challenge comes to an end today and I am pleased to have read 12 books for this challenge, which you will find listed in my sidebar. I think my favourites would have to be the Spook's books which I hope to continue reading and definitely Valiant by Holly Black. I have really enjoyed taking part in the challenge, but now have quite a few other challenges to finish and a new one just for July, which you will find detailed here.
This week I have finished reading 3 books, and I am half way through 2 others, which is absolutely fabulous for me. They are:
1)The Shop At Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber.
2)Sanction by Jim Magwood
3)High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
4)Voodoo Season by Jewell Parker Rhodes - half way through.
5)The Funny Thing Is by Ellen Degeneres - half way through.
Next week I hope to read the following books.
1)Waiting on Manana by Miranda Innes
2)A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton
3)Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr - there will be a giveaway with this review.
What have you been reading this week? What books have you got lined up for next week?
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Saturday, 20 June 2009
And the Winner Is!
Jen @ Mommablogsalot
So well done Jen on winning my copy of Garden Spells. I hope you enjoy it. Please send me your home address to
vivienne_dacostaathotmaildotcom.
Sorry to everyone else who entered. I was so impressed to see my little comp appearing on so many blogs. I wish I had a copy for each and everyone one of you. I may see if I can get my hands on another copy.
There will be another giveaway next week. So do pop back and have a look.
Thanks again for visiting my blog.
Friday, 19 June 2009
Gardens Spells Competition Now Closed
Friday Finds and Library Loot
I have two books that I would really like to read this week.
The Painter From Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein. I found this on Dar's site Peeking Between the Pages and she has a competition on her site to win it too. You will find the competition here.
Here is the synopsis from Waterstones books.
In 1913, an orphan girl boards a steamship bound for Wuhu in South East China. Left in the hands of her soft-hearted but opium-addicted uncle she is delivered to The Hall of Eternal Splendour which, with its painted faces and troubling cries in the night, seems destined to break her spirit. And yet the girl survives and one day hope appears in the unlikely form of a customs inspector, a modest man resistant to the charms of the corrupt world that surrounds him but not to the innocent girl who stands before him. From the crowded rooms of a small-town brothel, heavy with the smoke of opium pipes and the breath of drunken merchants, to the Bohemian hedonism of Paris and the 1930s studios of Shanghai, Jennifer Epstein's first novel, based on a true story, is an exquisite evocation of a fascinating time and place, with a breathtaking heroine at its heart.
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Here is the synopsis from Waterstones.
Angels In My Hair" is the autobiography of a modern day mystic, an Irish woman with powers of the saints of old. When she was a child, people thought Lorna was 'retarded' because she did not seem to be focusing on the world around her, instead Lorna was seeing angels and spirits. As Lorna tells the story of her life, the reader meets, as she did, the creatures from the spirit worlds who also inhabit our own - mostly angels of an astonishing beauty and variety - including the prophet Elijah and an Archangel - but also the spirits of people who have died. This remarkable document is the testimony of a woman who sees things, beyond the range of our everyday experience.

What books did you find this week?
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Thursday, 18 June 2009
General ramblings of the day
Jo has worked really hard at trying to organise our dysfunctional team of scrappers and has now decided to take a rest from it and I really can't blame her. At least she can shout at me in person, when I don't respond by email.
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Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Sanction by Jim Magwood

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Tuesday, 16 June 2009
The Shop at Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber

Pages 408
Published by MIRA books in 2006
Challenges - 100+ books
I have to say this really isn't a book that I would normally read, but I was in need of some light reading and after hearing lots of recommendations about Debbie Macomber, I thought I would give it a go and I can now hold up my hands and say I really enjoyed it.
I was expecting a real light and fluffy book, what I actually got was a book that looks at how the most unlikely friendships develop, how people can be truly their for others. This book made me feel really good after reading it, because it talks about how when a door closes, a window opens and new opportunities come your way.
This story is about Lydia, who after suffering two bouts of brain cancer, decides it is time to live her life and do what she has always dreamed of. She opens a knitting shop, a hobby that got her through the dark times, because even when she felt really ill, she could still knit a row which was a big achievement during the bad days.
Once her shop has opened, she decides to offer knitting classes to her customers. In her class, she gets three people who develop the most unlikely friendships.
Jacqueline a wealthy society woman in her mid forties, who has an empty marriage and a son who has just married way beneath his social status and who are now expecting their first child.
Carol, a successful business woman who is unable to conceive a child and preparing to go through her final IVF treatment.
Alix a streetwise, convicted young girl, who decides to knit to fulfil her community service hours.
Every week, this unlikely trio go to Lydia's shop to learn to knit and their lives unravel and intertwine to develop into long lasting friendships.
This book deals with real life situations that affect everyone's life. Cancer, IVF treatments failing, adulterous affairs, empty marriages and drugs. There is a lot of drama and anxiety in the book, which kept me turning the pages. I felt comfortable in the company of these four women as they each try to cope with their problems and how they find solutions to help them cope.
If you read this book, you should come away thinking that you should never give up on life, because their is always a light at the end of the tunnel and life does get better. I have always believed that if something goes wrong, good will finds its way out of the situation and this book, even though it is fiction, just helps to confirm my beliefs.
I will definitely be reading the followup ' A Good Yarn' as I want to know how the characters lives develop and move on.
Debbie Macomber reminds me of an Irish writer, Sharon Owens, who writes in a similar style supplying you will a real feel good read. Her books include 'The Tavern At Maple Street' and 'The Tearoom at Mulberry Street.'
So if you are looking for a feel good book, then I would definitely recommend this one by Debbie Macomber.
Has anyone else read any books by Debbie Macomber?
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Monday, 15 June 2009
Mailbox Monday

I have received a couple of lovely emails this week from Miranda Innes who wrote Cinnamon City which I reviewed here and she has promised to come on my blog when she gets back from her latest crisis in Marrakesh, where she has found her manager has chased away her English visitor! Hopefully she will be able to tell us all about it next month.
I have received a few very lovely books this week.
The Reincarnationist by M.J Rose, which you may remember me raving about last week. I managed to pick this one up in the charity shop, so I was really chuffed.
Mr Toppit by Charles Elton - I kept seeing this book around and became quite intrigued by it. When I saw it in the charity shop I had to have it.
Here is a summary of it from Amazon.
And out of the Darkwood Mr Toppit comes, and he comes not for you, or for me, but for all of us. When The Hayseed Chronicles, an obscure series of children's books, become world-famous millions of readers debate the significance of that enigmatic last line and the shadowy figure of Mr Toppit who dominates the books. The author, Arthur Hayman, an unsuccessful screenwriter mown down by a concrete truck in Soho, never reaps the benefits of the books' success. The legacy passes to his widow, Martha, and her children - the fragile Rachel, and Luke, reluctantly immortalised as Luke Hayseed, the central character of his father's books. But others want their share, particularly Laurie, the overweight stranger from California, who comforts Arthur as he lies dying, and has a mysterious agenda of her own that changes all their lives. For buried deep in the books lie secrets which threaten to be revealed as the family begins to crumble under the heavy burden of their inheritance. Spanning several decades, from the heyday of the British film industry after the war to the cut-throat world of show business in Los Angeles, Mr Toppit is a riveting tale of the unexpected effects of sudden fame and fortune. Not since Jonathan Coe's What a Carve Up! has a novel managed to capture a family and a society to such wonderfully funny and painful effect.
The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshlyn Jackson. This one has been making the rounds of the blogging world and after reading so many excellent reviews I was over the moon to find it in a little shop called Choc A Books which sells all it's brand new books for a pound.
Shamanka by Jeanne Willis is a YA book also from the Choc a Book shop. Here is a short description of it.
What is magic? What is illusion? What is real? Step into the extraordinary world of Sam Khaan, who has just discovered a witch doctor's notebook in her attic. Convinced that it belongs to her long-lost father - the son of a witch doctor - she sets out on a journey to discover the answers to these questions. In her encounters with diviners and healers, conjurers and mystics, Sam learns the truth about magic the hard way. Here is your chance to take a far easier route.
So these are the books I received this week. What did you get?
Saturday, 13 June 2009
Saturday Scrapping
I managed to make two single layouts and one double layout during the day.
My first layout is a very simple page and only took me half hour to make. The picture was taken at Leonardslee Gardens and is definitely one of my favourites. The paper is from the My Minds Eye range.
The paper used is actually Hannah Montana paper from Sandylion which I bought about a year ago and never used.
Friday, 12 June 2009
Friday Finds
Friday Finds is hosted by MizB at You Should Be Reading and you can find it here.
I have found four books this week, that I would really like to add to my collection.

Her first novel The Icarus Girl was written whilst she was studying for her A levels. This book was written during a year Helen spent doing volunteer work in South Africa. She got the idea from the house she was staying in .
Here is a synopsis of the book.
In a vast, mysterious house on the cliffs near Dover, the Silver family is reeling from the hole punched into its heart. Lily is gone and her twins, Miranda and Eliot, and her husband, the gentle Luc, mourn her absence with unspoken intensity. All is not well with the house, either, which creaks and grumbles and malignly confuses visitors in its mazy rooms, forcing winter apples in the garden when the branches should be bare. Generations of women inhabit its walls. And Miranda, with her new appetite for chalk and her keen sense for spirits, is more attuned to them than she is to her brother and father. She is leaving them slowly -
Slipping away from them -
And when one dark night she vanishes entirely, the survivors are left to tell her story.
A real spine tingling tale, with Gothic roots.
I came across this Sarah Waters book by accident, whilst searching for another one and was quite taken by it. This book is set in the same time period as Night Watch.
Here is a synopsis of it.
In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his. Prepare yourself. From this wonderful writer who continues to astonish us, now comes a chilling ghost story.
I do love a spooky story!

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch William. I read about this book on Lost in Books which you will find here
I am absolutely intrigued by this book.
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