Life & art in Angeltown.

QotD: Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

If you were only allowed to own one book, what book would you choose?
Submitted by The Private Library.

(Typepad's QotD)

I cannot even count how many times I've read Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, so I think this has to be my answer! What about you?

Summer So Far!

Whew! Summer is flying by!

I just did a blog redesign that I like despite the irritating Typepad limitations on blogs using templates. I really do not want to switch to advanced templates for my personal blog - it makes changes much more of a hassel so this will have to do unless Typepad decides to be awesome and make some needed changes like...oh I don't know...how about the ability to have a full width (outside of container) footer for example! Good grief Typepad!

OK so anyway I think I'll just do a recap of my life & things that caught my attn so far this summer. This is a long post so I'll split it into sections! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ baby <3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Baby Tristan is growing SO FAST! <SIGH> Here he is eating a quesadilla I made him for lunch. He loves cheese! 

Tristan had a fun playdate with Will, Kate & Devin at Sacha's house. I filmed a bit so Sarah can see how much he loves this playhouse toy that matches his kitchen! Thanks for having us over, Sacha! P.S. It's a bit shakey - I was on the couch and Will & Devin were sitting with me at various times LOL. It's quite difficult to be steady with a 1 year old & a 3 year old next to you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ books ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have read several more fantastic books (all updated on my WeRead lists!) including Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska & An Abundance of Katherines by the brilliant John Green. Paper Towns is my fave of the three. John Green has a very truthful & thought provoking writing style and is quite insightful into the way people perceive each other vs. reality. I can honestly say I will read anything John Green writes - a new fave author!

I also read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins:

Fascinating story of a strong-willed girl thrown into a very disturbing "game" requiring teenagers to kill each other or be killed. Interesting commentary on doing what society and/or the government requires vs. choosing what is morally right. I've always been drawn to these sorts of books and I can't wait for book two!
If you like these types of stories as well I also recommend The Giver by Lois Lowry and the classic series starting with A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.

I'm very much looking forward to the sequel coming this fall: Catching Fire. Yay!

Speaking of sequels, Maureen Johnson announced she is writing a sequel to 13 Little Blue Envelopes (which I wrote about in a previous post). And speaking of Maureen Johnson, read this absolutely hilarious play submitted by a fan to Maureen's Scarlett Fever contest: http://tinyurl.com/kl6ysm

I'm currently reading three more books when I get a few minutes: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama. More about those when I'm done!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ crafts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been crafting up a storm over at TCC's Blog! I'll get some of the those projects posted here soon. Plus I have some other projects to post! Soon I promise!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ harry potter & things made of awesome ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It has been an amazing summer for Harry Potter goodness! I already posted about the complete AWESOMENESS that was the live show with Pottercast, The Remus Lupins, The Whomping Willows & The Mudbloods. Make sure to check them out if you haven't yet! AND I'm still SO HAPPY that Melissa signed my copy of Harry, A History!

I've also been getting more involved in fighting for awesomeness with the Nerdfighters, the Harry Potter Alliance & MyLeaky. You will not find fandoms anywhere more welcoming & invested in decreasing world suck, spreading the invaluable lessons Dumbledore taught us, and in general making a the world a more tolerant and better place.

And if all of that wasn't enough, I will be watching Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince at the theater IN 52 HOURS! WOOOOOOOOOOT! Kathy & I have our tickets and will be at the midnight showing Tuesday night. Can't wait!

I added a page to the blog called Obsessions (LOL! tab at the top right). Coming soon there will be fun things like Links & art including Harry Potter related stuff.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ random ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've discovered BlipFM (LOL) and love that I can tweet songs to all of you! You can find my BlipFM channel here and there is a link in the sidebar under Socialize.

And for some literal awesomeness watch this:

reading 13 Little Blue Envelopes...

Today I'm reading 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson & jotting down my thoughts along the way:

• reading about Aunt Peg's unexplainable need to create made me choke up and ache to make something. I'm gonna love this book.
• love the description of Harrod's. is it really like that???
• if someone ever wants to make me an elaborate scavenger hunt style adventure in Europe you have my permission. And psssst...I took 5 years of French so that so that could be a good destination for a while!
• I want to know if the pineapple is whole!
• heeheeeeee well at I'm not the only one incapable of making things weird.
• ah girl falls for experienced boy. <sigh> I recall this story vaguely from a time when I was less sarcastic.
• letter #6...maureen knows us-idealistic-artistic-with-issues-types too well thinks I.
• smiling. very strange, but right.
• one day I will go to Paris.
• I think I'd like a Stroopwaffle, please.
• why do things that have best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-me potential terrify us so?
• tears. I'm such a crier. <sigh>

I just finished this really lovely book. Very enjoyable & surprisingly cheerful considering the reason Ginny is on the journey in the first place. The only thing I found unfathomable was the fact that Ginny's parents let her go on this trip alone at 17. But it is a book so I guess that's how it goes! Overall a fun read!

Reading through my thoughts again and noticing I am quite the fan of sentence fragments and punctuation. Hmmmm.

Re: Previous Post
Please note the free online version is the first 80 or so pages...in other words just enough to suck you right in to the story! However, the browse function is a fabulous way to try out authors you might not be familiar yet while taking absolutely no risk. I mean, hey, after 80 pages I think you can be sure you'll like the book and buy it. Try it out!

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson...read it for FREE!

I am delighted to find a book on my reading list available as one of the FREE ONLINE BOOKS on WeRead.com. Thank you HarperCollins & WeRead! I recently read Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson and now several of her other books are on my reading list including 13 Little Blue Envelopes and The Bermudez Triangle. My Suite Scarlett review as posted on WeRead:

A charming young adult book! I really enjoy the author's writing style; she's particularly skilled in describing the relationships between her characters. What I most appreciate in the story is the natural inclination of the siblings to pull together while under pressure. Oh and I wouldn't mind living in a hotel for a while!

Remember you can always check out my reading list, reviews etc. in the left sidebar. I have more to post about so back later! 

MTV Movie Awards, books, & Harry Potter

Did you watch the MTV Movie Awards??? Can you believe that nonsense they pulled w Eminem? Good grief. That was SO over the line - totally don't blame him for leaving. Actually I find very little of their crude humor funny, so you know. But I do love movies and like to see who wins so what's a girl to do. Plus I wanted to see the promised new clips! Of course Twilight won loads of awards - yay! In case you missed it, here's the New Moon trailer they showed:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

And in case that wasn't enough, they also played a clip from HBP! Only 46 days left!!!! Only 46 days! That makes me so very, very happy. :) Here's the clip:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Since my last post I've finished three more books, Brother Odd & Odd Hours by Koontz and Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson. I really enjoyed Brother Odd (see post below for the previous books in this series). Odd's wit, sarcasm & sense of responsibility make a lovely character. Odd Hours was also good but books 1 & 3 are still my favorite in this series.

Suite Scarlett is a simply lovely book. This was my first Maureen Johnson read, and I really like her style & ability to define the relationships between her characters. I'll be reading more of her books I'm sure.

You can see my full reviews on my weRead account (see Angel's Bookshelf in the sidebar). That's all for now! Ciao!

Quote from Brother Odd by Dean Koontz...

...that made my heart swell right up:

Some will accuse me of being judgmental. Thank you, and proud of it. You wreck a kid's life I have no pity for you. There are doctors who advocate killing these children at birth with lethal injections, or who would let them die later by declining to treat their infections allowing simple illnesses to become catastrophic. More cells, more lightless pits. Maybe my lack of compassion for these abusers of children, and other failures of mine, means I won't see Stomy on the other side. That the fire I face will be consuming rather than purifying. But at least if I wind up in that palpible dark where having no cable TV is the least of the inconveniences, I will have the pleasure of seeking you out if you have beaten a child. I will know just what to do with you, and I will have eternity to do it.

(Please disregard any transcription errors...I'm listening to the audio books so I'm not positive of the true structure in the book!)

This book is fantastic so far!!!!! Now I must get back to it!

Odd Thomas

I've been reading the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz ... or rather I've been listening to it. While there's something so charming about actual books, I adore audiobooks because they allow me to 'read' so much more than I would be able to otherwise. Tonight I finished the second book in the series, Forever Odd. I enjoyed it although I don't think it's as good as the first book in this series, Odd Thomas.

I've also added a link to my full reading list over on the left hand side! For the last couple of months I've been using weRead.com to manage my reading list and I really love it! It's a really easy way to keep an easy-to-update list of both books you have read and books you want to read. You can rate them and post reviews if want, join bookclubs, read some books for free right on their website, and even chuck books at your friends that you think they should read! Fabulous!

OK, I'm off to read book three, Brother Odd!