Happy Mother's Day!

I hope every mom out there is having a wonderful Mother's Day! My mother-in-law was in town this past week so we enjoyed spending time with her. But I wanted to wish my the other mother's in my family a huge happy Mother's Day.

My mom is an amazing lady who can still manage to whoop me when it comes to hiking Colorado's Fourteeners:
And to my grandma who is an amazing lady:
And to my sister who's has become such a wonderful and patient mom:

Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen

I remember when Sarah Addison Allen's book Garden Spells came out because I adore the cover. It's so gorgeous! I finally found a nice hardcover copy at a library sale and have finally gotten around to reading it. And I loved it! It kind of reminds me of Practical Magic...but it might just be better.

Ok. Here's the synopsis:

The Waverley family of Bascome, North Carolina have a reputation for being sort of gifted...magical...special. This story is about two Waverley sisters, Claire and Sydney. Claire is the older, tamer sister who's talent lies in the kitchen and the garden. The Waverley's garden is known for it's magical quailities which are passed on in the food Claire makes. Everything she cooks has something from the garden: rose petals, pansies, nasturtiums. And Claire knows which flowers aid in keeping secrets, bringing forth memories, and such. And never...never eat from the apple tree. The whole town knows that one. But Claire hasn't seen her sister in years, not since Syndey ran off after high school. Now Syndey has come home with her young daughter Bay and they are running away from something.

Sounds sort of similar to Practical Magic, right? But I just love the characters. Bay is so adorable. Aunt Evanelle is a kooky old lady who just has a feeling when she needs to give someone something they need (and they WILL need it). So she might randomly give someone a melon peeler, or a shirt two sizes to big, or whatever. And I LOVE the cooking in it...at the end of the book the author lists the different types of flowers and what they are good for. It made me want to live in North Carolina.

It was the perfect book for curling up in bed to read while getting over the flu.

Here's a few other alternate covers...although my favorite is the one I have, this one is gorgeous...although I don't know what the dress means...

This one is kind of boring:And here's the newer book by Sarah Addison Allen that I want to read now (another beautiful cover):

Also Reviewed By:
Stuff as Dreams are Made On
Age 30+ A Lifetime of Books
Queen of Happy Endings
Book Nut
Reading Adventures
Reading Derby
Medieval Bookworm
Stephanie's Confessions of a Book-a-holic
Bookfoolery and Babble
Peeking Between the Pages
Out of the Blue

Quick Question

Hello!

Just popping in to ask a quick question. I changed my blog template to be more stretched out so more of the page is used. Do you like this new format or do you like the older regular style?

The purpose in the change would be to try and get the photos I take to be a bit larger.

I'd welcome any thoughts, tips, comments, whatever.

Ok. Thanks!

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Note: I went back to original template. I'm still going to try and post a bit bigger pictures though. We'll see what happens.

Thanks everyone for your input!!!

P.S. You can still comment or give me tips/thoughts/etc. Thanks!

The Little Book - Selden Edwards

I've been in a bit of book blogging slump lately and it's mainly because of Selden Edwards The Little Book. I just can't figure out what I want to say about it. So I'll give it a whirl. In a nutshell...not too thrilled with it. I finished it, so that says something. Actually I was pretty annoyed that I couldn't just quit reading it...so I finished it. But not my favorite read of the year. And since I wanted to love it...man it was disappointing..but mainly since I had such high expectations. But I love the cover darn it all. See...I'm torn.

Here's the synopsis:

Legendary musician, baseball player, and perfection embodied, Frank Standish Burden III, known as "Wheeler," is in his forties when he somehow gets transported back in time to Vienna, circa 1897. There he meets his father, whom he never knew since he died in WWII, and a slew of other characters of Vienna's elite including Freud, Mark Twain, and other intellectuals. He also meets his grandmother and old professor, the "Venerable Haze," who were in Vienna at the time. Oh and Hitler as a boy is somewhere in there. The books flashes between his time in Vienna in 1897 and detailing his life's accomplishments. And the book is supposedly written by Wheeler's mother.

Ok. First I'll say the good things.

1) The writing was pretty good. Definitely a lot of research. Selden Edwards was an English teacher and began writing this in 1974. So a lot of years went into this book. And it shows.
2) The history aspect of Vienna. I took Eastern European classes in college so not a lot of the information was new but still very interesting.

Ok. That's it. Here's why I was annoyed.

1) If I saw the word "legendary" or "venerable" or whatever again I was going to scream. I understand that Wheeler was a legend...the perfect game, the perfect pitch, his band became the epitome of 1960's music and he wrote the anthem for the age. AAAARRRGGG.
2) It was written by his mom. HIS MOM! Mom's are notorious about perhaps glorifying or hiding the negative.
3) His love affair. I'm not saying anything...but it was creepy. That's all I'm saying. You'll have to read it to judge for yourself.

But just because it wasn't my cup of tea, I can understand if people like it. And a lot of people really do.

I read a review in the Washington Post though that totally nailed how I felt about the book so at least I know I'm not alone.

So I'm curious...have you read it? If so what did you think?

Also Reviewed by:
The Tome Traveller's Weblog
The Book Lady's Blog

Award!

So I've been a bit bad with keeping up with things. Good news is that I'm almost finished with my last class for my Master's degree in Library and Information Sciences. All I have to do is log in 120 hours this summer and I'll graduate in August. Whoopee!! I'm excited to apply to a ton of places here in the city and see what happens.

To get back on track I need to give a big THANK YOU! to Planet Books for giving me the Friends Award.“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.”

I'll pass this award on to some great blog friends who always make my day with wonderful comments and insanely cool blogs:

Dennis @ Dennis's Diary of Destruction- one cool Vizsla
Andi @ Tripping Toward Lucidity- another cool Library Science student
Bree @ The Things We Read- a fellow student struggling through finals week (I sympathize!)
Nicole @ Linus's Blanket- another New York City reader
Jen @ The Movieholic & Bibliophile's Blog- books and movies...what could be better?
Rhinoa @ Rhinoa's Ramblings- a cool London blogger
Amanda @ Urban Bachelorette- a Brooklyn book blogger
Courtney @ The Public, the Private and Everything In Between- love her writing

Oh, and I have to post a photo of Planet Book's pup Rocky. So adorable, right??

Raining Dogs

It's been raining cats and dogs here in New York City the last few days. And boy are we all tired of it. The weather definitely affects the whole mood of the city...after days of rain and cold we are all a little grumpy. So I have to keep looking on the bright side of things. 1) Our park is now nice and green because of all the rain AND 2) it's sometimes sort of fun to dry down the dogs.

I drop the towel on them and let them go nuts. They look like little puppy ghosts.
Anna was so fast I couldn't keep up. She just spun and spun until she ripped the towel off:
Then she got right in my face to tell me she didn't think it was very funny:
Charlie was a good sport though. I mess with him so much he just sits and takes it:
I call this one Santa Anna:

What do you enjoy about long rainy days?

A night in the neighborhood

A few months ago I was sitting in our apartment, doing whatever, when Anna started going a bit crazy at the window. Not too normal...Charlie's usually the busy-body staring out the window...but after a while I went and checked out what she was all bothered about.Hmmm...didn't look too good. I counted about 12 firetrucks...the entire street was blocked off. So like any concerned citizen I put on my shoes and went to find out. Good thing all the neighbors were out and helpful. Two ladies from my building, in house coats and all, told me that smoke was either smelt or seen from a top floor apartment next door. So I saw the firemen climb the ladder and punch out the window. Everything turned out fine. But knowing a dozen firetrucks will show up in an emergency made me feel a lot better about my neighborhood.