you're only as old as you feel

I'm excited! I've found some more folks of my 'age group!' Even though I feel 20 something most of the time, I'm pretty much, well...not.

So here I am, along with some of my peers. If you're one of us... join in so we can see what you guys are up to as well!

Forty...it's the new, .... uhm... I forget... anyway. Yeah!
Thanks for hosting this Java! You're an inspiration :) Keep us young!








So I will also be adding to this post tomorrow for our regular Friday Bookish memes. And hope to have a lot of fun visiting everyone...as usual :)

Friday 4:30 p.m. ~ As promised....

BEA Edition – What upcoming releases are you most looking forward to?

Well, since I've had my nose so far in the past lately, I'm not paying close enough attention to what is even due out I'm afraid. 

I would have said The Wind Through The Keyhole ~ Stephen King (a dark tower book) but that's already out now and I still haven't read it.

I've been terrible about reading any galleys lately. So I haven't even perused the list of whats on deck.

Although Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn comes out next week and that sounds like it has SUMMER READ written all over it!

Synopsis from B&N 

Overview

'What are you thinking, Amy? The question I've asked most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to the person who could answer. I suppose these questions stormcloud over every marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?' Just how well can you ever know the person you love? This is the question that Nick Dunne must ask himself on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police immediately suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they aren't his. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what did really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife? And what was left in that half-wrapped box left so casually on their marital bed? In this novel, marriage truly is the art of war...

So that's my pick... I'll be anxious to read yours and find out more about the pulse of the bookish future!!

Top Ten Tuesday May 29 - endure

The word of the day today is Endure!

Today's Top Ten Tuesday hosted by the ever gracious folks at the Broke and the Bookish, asks us,
Top Ten Books Written In The Past 10 Years That I Hope Are Still Being Read In 30 Years

There are so many books from the past that I'm still trying to catch up reading that I actually had a hard time putting this list together! Everything I chose was over 10 years old! Almost...but there are some that I've had the privilege to read that should make an impression for years and years and years to come.

1.  The Book Theif - Markus Zusak - it's got such wonderful character and lends so much information to such an awful time , touching, and so well crafted.

2. The Help - Kathryn Stockett - This was and is an important book. The lessons from the time period written about can still apply to how we treat people today!! We should never see this as a book about the past but a book about how we look at each other!!

3. The Homecoming of Samuel Lake - Another look into a different cultural area with amazing characters and touching on delicate topics and tragic events.

4. Strange as this Weather Has Been - Ann Pancake - This brings to light the tragic ecological topic of mountain top mining in a story populated with incredibly strong people,but especially strong women.

5. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver - After I read this book, I never looked at my food or food choices the same again! This could be the modern version of 'Silent Spring'

6. Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier - This is literature. Simply literature. This is writing for the ages. It is Prose in a narrative world. I loved every sentence of this book. It did not rush, no matter how much I thought it should and it led me, involved me, in every path it took.

7. The Road - Cormac McCarthy - Allegory lives. On the surface, a post-apocalyptic novel about a man and his young son seeking safety. On another level, well .... I'll let you decide.

 8. Looking For Alaska - John Green - Green is a master of our time. Considered a Young Adult author, there is nothing short of great literature between the pages of ANY Green book, but especially Looking For Alaska and it's how it handles sensitive subjects and important topics.

9.The Kitchen Counter  Cooking School - Kathleen Flinn - If we all realized how easy it is to cook, perhaps we could break our unhealthy addiction to the fast and the over-processed! Me included...actually me Especially! :)

10. Of course, Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling. And I have no doubt this one will hold true!! :)

So there it is, I'm sure I'll come back with tons for my TBR list once I take off and wander around all your lists!

Breathe

This is my first step over the Sunday Salon Lurking line into the light of Posting!

Over on the right side of my blog and down a tad you will see a list of upcoming things on my radar.

I have made it to 'Breathe!!' Yay!! The huge event that has stressed the last 2 months of my life is complete and except for having about 3 times as much cooked pasta as I actually needed, the party went off without a hitch.

Oh and I had too much cake too, by at least twice as much as I needed. And pop, yup 6 cases left over. Obviously some of the RSVP's didn't end up making it.

It was a fun time but I am so glad it's over. How in the world do professional party planners stand it!!

Now during this time of Breathe, I hope to actually get to R.E.A.D!!

I tried to listen to some of an audiobook, but I couldn't concentrate. I tried to read some of Mansfield Park and really really couldn't concentrate (I'm 100 pages in and have NO idea who is who), I even tried to blod through a little more Bill Bryson, which is usually more like a reward for me and couldn't get anywhere. So you know it's been hectic!

Now that 'Summer' is here, and the temperatures are going up and the days are long and the days cajole me into repose, perhaps I can indulge myself and find some gems to post about in the works I still hope to get to!

Have a safe holiday everyone!

Crazy gradu-bday-trip-party week!

I'm not forgetting my dearest darling blog.

 
But this has been graduation, 8 hours drive the next day for my dads 85 birthday, drive home the day after that and get ready for a 200+ person grad party.

I sure am supppper proud of her!!

But what was I thinking stacking all this up?

Somebody shoot me!! I just want to stretch out and READ!

Top Ten Tuesday Freebie

The Top Ten Tuesday topic at The Broke and the Bookish that Jamie chose was:

This week was scheduled to be Top Ten Authors I'd Like To See On A Reality Show but I got a lot of feedback about how HARD it was...so maybe not as good as an idea as I initally thought! SO..I opened it up as a Freebie Week but I decided to stick with the topic!  

I'm opting for a freebie week topic...especially since I don't have TV and don't watch reality shows...so I chose:

 top ten book characters that remind me of someone I know in reality :)

1) My eldest daughter - Skeeter from The Help - she is a writer and she has the courage to take the side of what is right weather or not is the side of what is expected or popular. She is planning on becoming a lawyer.

2) My youngest daughter - Hermione from Harry Potter -  She is smart, reserved, fiercely loyal to her friends, logical and beautiful too. She is planning to teach High School English, so she's brave too!

 3) My friend Audrey - Frances from Under the Tuscan Sun - Strong, single, impulsive, capable, quick to laughter and always ready for an adventure!

 4) My friend Sara - Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird She's a "Hey, Boo" kinda girl. And not prone to understand deliberate ignorance. She doesn't judge and doesn't hold to prescribed norms. She knows not only good from bad, but fights for it too. And fights well! After all she IS a lawyer.

5) My friend Jody - Erin Brockovich - Ok so technically Erin is real and not from a book even, but seriously Jody can kick some butt, rock some heels, and do the job better than anyone with 3 times the education!! And you DEFINITELY want her on your side.

 6) My Dad - Mr. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice - He just wanted to see me happy doing what I wanted to do as long as it wasn't tooooo out there and he'd defy who he needed to to make it happen. He wasn't the interfering type and went about his own business but was there for me with advice if I needed it. And he'd come get me if I was in trouble too.

7)  My Mom - the Mom from I Love You Forever - She would never fail to tell me she loved me. She worked her whole life FOR me. And now the tables are beginning to turn as she gets older and I get to tell her how much I love her  too :)

8)  My friend and co-worker Kayla - Ruby Thewes from Cold Mountain - She's tough as nails and can do just anything. She'd put a floggin' rooster in a pot in a hurry! She's smart past her cirucmstances too and a hard worker whose had to stand on her own early in her life

9) ???? (I'm not quite ready to say his name in case he's not as ready as I am)  - Noah from the Notebook - I hope I'm not saying this too prematurely but it's weird how close it all is. He's handsome, and independent, we were together once then apart (my fault) then there were others in the picture who kept us apart by manipulation and we never got a fair shot at this craziness called relationship. Now we are back together and it was practically a "it's still not over" moment. Hell it still might be!!! >:)

10) Me - so that makes me Allie. I've got a temper. I'm feisty and go against the norm sometimes, I wish I came from as much money. But I've not  know too much poverty. I know my faults in my past and I know the future is up to my choices.  I don't paint, but I do blog!!

Top Ten Quotes ~ subject to change without notice

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This week's topic is:  Top Ten Favorite Passages from Books

This is a fun topic this week! It is also one that, like my favorite food, tends to change depending on, for one thing, what new book I've read or what strikes my fancy, or what I remember I've forgotten!! There are so many that I'm sure as I go through the linky list, I'll be face-palm-ing for not choosing more amazing quotes!

 “You must never feel badly about making mistakes ... as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth 

  “Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)... There are just some kind of men who - who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.(Miss Maudie)”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

 “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods 

 “I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“Not all those who wander are lost.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring 

'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,' he used to say. 'You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring   

 “I am going to take this bucket of water and pour it on the flames of hell, and then I am going to use this torch to burn down the gates of paradise so that people will not love God for want of heaven or fear of hell, but because He is God.”
― John Green, Looking for Alaska 

  “They call this war a cloud over the land. But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say 'Shit, it's raining!”
― Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain 
(actually I like to recite this one just like in the movie. and I'm good at it too! I really get into it! watch out Renee!!)

“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  

 “But the wild things cried, “Oh please don't go- We'll eat you up- we love you so!”
― Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are 

Farewell Maurice.

It's Monday May 7th

This is my first participation in this meme although I have been lurking and reading IMWAYR posts from you all for quite some time :) I read so slow though (due to time, not because I'm bad at it), that I have felt that my posts would be quite redundant.

But maybe not, so I thought I'd give it a go :)

This week I finished:

I started this as an Audiobook and finished up with the print version. I didn't care for the audio at all. I did enjoy the print but was a bit "Meh" on the ending.



I am currently reading: 

This takes a brain shift after Mockingjay. I am enjoying it but having a devil of a time remembering who is who!! And soooo trying to keep the movie out of my imagination as I read. I'm not far into it yet. I may have to make notes! ;)

Also

I've been dying to read this! It is laugh-out-loud funny but not exactly what I expected. I can't wait to get back to it each afternoon! I'm a little over half done I think.

This is the first time I've used the free Kindle reading app with a loan from our public library. This is purty slick!!


And

I started this as a galley but dropped the ball and didn't get it done... so I went and bought it and am finishing it. :) Hope to get back to it again pretty soon, I'm neglecting it again and not because I don't like it, I actually LOVE it!! Mostly because I don't think of myself as much of a cook and it's nice when I see other people struggle with food and win too!

Coming up:

and a WHOLE lot of other choices

Bookish things to do this week:

I've applied for a position on the local Library Board of Directors. There is a meeting on Wednesday and I hope to crash it since I don't think the position has been assigned yet.

I hope they want me!! :)