Fictional Lover of the Week; John Thornton, day 3

My 21st century dream date with John Thornton at Manchester, England. (The place where Mr Thornton lives in the novel, Milton-Northern is Manchester in real life)


Manchester, England
-second most populous city in the UK
-in south-central part of North West England
-19th century textile manufacture city
-was world's first industrialised city
-today Manchester is a centre of arts, the media, higher education and commerce
-third most visited city in the United Kingdom
-home of football team Manchester United

SHOPPING
John would take me to King Street which has been a place for a retail therapy since the 19th century. We would do some window shopping and maybe John would even buy me something... you never know.



EATING
The Gaucho Grill, the winner of Manchester's best restaurant of the year 2007, is an Argentine restaurant were you are able to order the perfect, juicy Argentine steak. Some great steak and a good bottle of wine would be perfect for us. After that we would head to a little cozy coffee to continue our talk.


ENTERTAINMENT
I have always wanted to attend a "real" soccer game so John would take me to Manchester United game.

The Story of my Life

This is a mini challenge answer to Cindy's challenge.

If I would be writing a book about my life I would start all the way from the beginning. Of course not all the way from there because I cannot remember my birth or something, but I would start from my earliest memories. I remember all the funny plays from the kindergarden, the christmas and birthday presents from many years and even some things someone said to me and I said to someone.
The first tragedy of the story would appear at the age of 12. My father died suddenly without any warning. My life changec so much. Before I was this lively, social girl who loved to hang around with others but after my father's death I became shy and very cafeful about with who I hang around and what I do. That lasted for many years and I was having difficulties to get friends and to trust to new people.

At the age of 15 I decided that I want to be an exchange student somewhere abroad. At the age of 16 I left my family, home and Finland and went to Virginia, United States. I got this amazing Mexican host parents and 2 new brothers and 3 new sisters. They still are like my siblings and I miss them so much. For the first time I also fell in love. Sometimes our relationship was like movies; I hated him first, I just couldn't stand him. After a couple of months of "friendship" I started to fall in love with him. I miss him so much these days. The parts of the book talking about my time in US would be HILARIOUS. So many things happened to me during that time.

When I came back from US I started a new, international high school here at Finland. First I felt like I am never going to get friends, most of the students were younger than me and some of them knew each other already. I was so stupid worrying about new friends. Now I have the most amazing friends in the world, they mean everything to me. I cannot imagine my life without them. One of them stresses so much about school things, one of them is this crazy and loud girl, one of them loves to party all the time, one of them is a little "blond" and nice to everyone and one of them is this sporty, positive girl. We are so different but at the same time the same.

So, as a conclusion I could say that my book would have a happy ending. It would be sad at some point and probably pretty angst too. My book would also be extremely funny because all these stupid and funny things happen to me. There would also be a man involved, the only guy I've ever loved.

Willoughby's Return by Jane Odiwe

Willoughby's Return, a sequel to Jane Austen's Sense&Sensibility will be published November 1st.
I am really excited about this book, I loved Effusions of Fancy and Lydia Bennet's Story by Jane Odiwe.
Please check out Jane's fabulous website at here.
If you are interested about ordering the book check out the information from here.

Fictional Lover of the Week; John Thornton, day 2

Today I decided to post some of my favorite John Thornton quotations.

“Don’t worry Mother, I’m in no danger from Miss Hale. She’s very unlikely to consider me a catch. She’s from the South. She doesn’t care for our Northern ways.”

“I do know something of hardship …”

“I know she does not care for me but I can’t remain silent. I must ask her.”

"I don’t want to possess you! I wish to marry you because I love you!"

"Look back, look back at me." (THIS IS MY ULTIMATE FAVORITE PART OF THE BBC ADAPTATION!)

"You're coming home with me?"

Review: Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty

Chris and Helen are both studying on high school. It is their last year and they both have plans for the future- Chris wants to study English, Helen music. They have sex and after just only that one time everything chances. Helen gets sick and after several pregnancy tests she learns that she is pregnant.

The news of Helen's pregnancy are shock to everyone, especially to Helen. She feels like she cannot speak to anyone about the situation. She starts to write letters to 'dear nobody', to her unborn baby. By these letters the reader gets to know what Helen really feels and how her love towards her baby develops.

I decided to read this book as a part of the read-a-thon because it is pretty short. I think the book is just a perfect lenght, I am happy Doherty did not put too much stuff into it to make it longer. Doherty tells a beautiful story about love and making choices. Doherty uses beautiful language throughout the book to describe how the bond between Helen and her unborn baby is created. A light and easy read with a deeper message.

Review: Ransom my Heart by Meg Cabot

"The Debut novel of Princess Mia Thermopolis"

Finnula Crais is the youngest of the Crais family. Around the village she is known as a beautiful Finnula, but she does not feel herself to be beautiful. She is a girl who loves riding, shooting, hunting and sometimes even drinking with the guys of the village. When she hears that her dearest sister Mellina has problems she promises to do something to help her. They decide that Finnula has to kidnap a rich man so they can get money from the people who want to get him free.

Sir Hugh Fitzstephen is returning back to England. He left England, his home, 1o years ago. How, he is the new owner of the Fitzstephen house, the earl of the village.

Sir Hugh and Finnula bump into each other at the forest where Finnula kidnaps Sir Hugh. Finnula has seen sir Hugh handling big amounts of money at a local bar and she knows that he is a great catch. What she does not know is the fact that Hugh is really the earl of the village Finnula lives at. When they spend time together they both start to feel something they've never felt before; strong passion toward another person.

I love the Princess Diaries and I am sad to say that I did not enjoy this book that much. It had some very juicy and sexual bits and the Finnish translation of the book was hilarious but someway I just felt that especially the latter part of the book was really boring, I was just hoping to get to the conclusion of the story. not a bad read at all but not a good one either.

Review: Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella

Lara Lington has always been a little weird. At least that is how her parents think. Lara is a proud Londoner and a new business owner. She started a headhunting business with her friend Natalie. She has recently broken up with her boyfriend, Josh, but she is determined to get him back. She does not believe that their love could have just ended like it did.

Lara's great aunt Sadie Lancester has died at the age of 105. Lara never knew her great aunt, she had only met her once when she was a little kid. At the funeral Lara hears a voice of a girl asking for a necklace. She sees a girl in a weird clothes and starts to talk to her. What she notices quite soon is that no one else cannot see her. Lara is officially a freak- she is seeing a ghost. Sadie, the ghost, is asking Lara to find her necklace, she says she cannot rest in peace without it. Lara has no options, she has to stop the funeral and find the necklace.

Sadie and Lara are like the day and night. Sadie is bubbly, easy going, a little crazy and looking for fun and Lara is more serious and thinks about things more logically. They have a lot of arguments and sometimes Lara feels like a fool talking to a ghost but eventually they become friends and they start to do things for each other; Sadie spies Josh for Lara and Lara goes to a date with Ed, an american guy, so Sadie would imagine herself at a date with him. Later on Lara starts to think that could Ed be something more than just a date for her great aunt's ghost. And in the middle of all this action Lara is trying to find Sadie's precious necklace.

I had a lot of expectations towards this book since it was the first book I read by Sophie Kinsella. All those expectations were filled. Twenties Girl is such a funny book, I was laughing out loud when I read it. I love Lara and Sadie, they are so different but at the same time the same. I love how the story develops and how in the end Lara and Sadie become really close. This is definitely one of the funniest books I've read so far.

Fictional Lover of the Week; John Thornton, day 1

I was so happy when I woke up today because I knew that it will be my first day with the fictional date of the week, Mr John Thornton.
I bet that for most of us he is familiar, but I decided that maybe it is wise to put some basic information about him to this first post so he becomes a little familiar also for the readers who do not know about him.

MR. JOHN THORNTON from North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
-The owner of the largest cotton mill Marlborough Mills in the industrial town called Milton in Northern England during the 1850's.
-When Mr Hale, a vicar, moves from South to the North with his wife and daughter Margaret, Mr Thornton becomes a student of Mr Hale
-First Thornton seems like an unlikely hero, he is a stern and unsympathetic industrialist.
-His struggle with his workers and with his own growing feelings for Margaret reveal a different, a lot gentler side of him
-Thornton is the man with the money but he seems very lonely until he falls in love with Margaret
-First Margaret dislikes Mr Thornton BIG TIME because she only sees the industrial side of him, but as the story develops she understands that there is a other side of Mr Thornton, a side he does not show to everyone

I bet that everyone who has read North&South or seen the BBC adaptation of it understands why I love Mr Thornton so much. Someway he reminds me of Mr Darcy, at least a little. They both are proud and "cold" at first but then when they meet a woman and fall in love they start to show a softer side.

The BBC adaptation, made in 2004, is one of my favorite BBC adaptations. It tells about the Northern English society at 1850's but it is also a lovestory. And I don't mind watching gorgeous Richard Armitage as Mr Thornton for like 4 hours.

Tomorrow I will post some of my favorite Mr Thornton quotes and maybe some videos from Youtube.

So what do you think about Mr Thornton? Have you seen the BBC adaptation of North and South or read the book?

Coming up next week

There are a lot of things going on next week in my blog. Or at least a lot more than usually during the weeks.

I have three reviews to write from the books I read for the Read-A-Thon. The reviews are:
1. Sophie Kinsella- Twenties Girl
2. Meg Cabot- Ransom my Heart
3. Berlie Doherty- Dear Nobody

So if you are interested to read something more about those books, remember to drop by at my blog at some point during the next week. I hope that the review for Twenties Girl will be up tomorrow, it all depends about my schelude tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be the first day my new feature, FICTIONAL LOVER OF THE WEEK! I am excited, because next week will be all about John Thornton from North&South. So if you adore Mr. Thornton as much as I do, drop by to check what I am doing. I think that everyday I will post something Mr.Thornton related to Read!Read!Read!

And one more thing! I am super excited. I will get the first part The Hunger Games tomorrow from the local library. I normally don't read that type of books but I've read so much about those books from different blogs that I just have to read it! I can't wait. I didn't believe what I saw when I noticed from the Internet that they have a copy of it. The city library in here never has any books I want to read in English.

Read-A-Thon, the FINAL update

BOOKS READ: A little over a half of Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella, Ransom my Heart by Meg Cabot and Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty

PAGES READ: 791

TIME SPEND READING: 18 HOURS!!!! (I am so proud of myself)

Read-A-Thon, update 13, End of Event meme

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
The hours after 1 am here at Finland, I was half way through the time. My back started hurting so much that I had to take a break.

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella was so funny!

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Not really, I think it works well like this.

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
Mini challenges and the cheerleaders

5. How many books did you read?
Two whole books and over a half of a one book I had started earlier on the week.

6. What were the names of the books you read?
Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella, Ransom my Heart by Meg Cabot and Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty

7. Which book did you enjoy most?
I enjoyed them all a lot, all of them had good parts. Twenties Girl was so funny, Ransom my Heart had a little twist of history in it (and the Finnish translation of this was hilarious) and then Dear Nobody was a little more serious.

8. Which did you enjoy least?
The end of the Ransom my Heart, I think it was pretty boring.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
I wasn't a cheerleader but I can say that I was so suprised about all the support. Keep doing the same, you are AMAZING!

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
I will participate definitely if I have a change to it. I will probably just read again, it has been so much fun!

Read-A-Thon, update 12

The last minutes of my 24 hours is almost at the end because it is almost 1pm here at Finland. I cannot believe that 24 hours ago I was sitting in this same chair waiting for the clock turn to 1pm so I could start reading. I feel like a winner, a champion! What a great feeling. This has been a great experience!
I will be cheering you others up for the last hour!
It has been so much fun to read with you all for these 24 hours, I am so looking for the next Read-A-Thon.
I will post a final update with the pages and hours read.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE SUPPORT AND CHEERING! IT HAS BEEN A HONOR TO READ WITH YOU ALL!

Read-A-Thon, update 11

I will participate to Stella's challenge too!

Pictures that come to my mind from Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty
Chris and Helen are in love. There is a huge amount of passion between them. They both are young, full of dreams and hopes. What they share is their love.
After their first night together Helen gets sick. They think it is only flu. It is not. Helen is pregrant. Helen panics. Chris panics. Helen's family panics. In the end, everyone panics.Helen feels like she cannot talk to anyone about the situation. She starts to write letters to 'dear nobody', her baby inside herself.Helen has to think everything again. With the child comes responsibility. She cannot undestand how she could have been so careless when she and Chris had sex.



After the birth of the baby Helen to start a new life. Chris's life will be never the same. As the baby gets the new life we come back to.....LOVE....

Okay, that was pretty lame.

Read-A-Thon, update 10

I am back again! It is a little past 10am here in Finland. As I started yesterday at 1pm it means that I still have 3 hours to go.
I write this post because I want to participate in mini-challenge from Dana's blog.

MY FAVORITE FOUR IN BOOKS
1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen2. Teach Me by R.A. Nelson3. Crossroads Cafe by Deborah Smith4.Princess Diaries (the whole series) by Meg Cabot
If I would've done this 100% honestly this list would include only books by Jane Austen. I chose my favorite from her novels and then put my other favorites to the list. The books after P&P are not in particular order.

So how are you holding up? Still reading? Good luck for the last hours, I will also continue reading RIGHT NOW!

Read-A-Thon, update 9

I'm up again... at least for a while. My muscles from my lower back are hurting like hell, I think it is due to the constant sitting and the fact that I went bowling at Friday. I just can feel them "pumping" and it hurts. So I think that it is better for me to continue laying down, I just took a medicine, hopefully it helps a little so I can finish up with the others at least the last hours of the challenge.

Cindy at Princess Bookie is having a suprise contest/mini challenge and of course I must take part. Go to Princess Bookie and take a part to the awesome contest.

The challenge asks to do a list of 8 of your favorite things (They all can't be books). Okay, this is going to be easy.

1. London (I adore that city, someday I want to move there. I love it even more than New York City and Washington D.C)
2.Greys Anatomy (The best TV show ever, I love the medicine, the drama and of course, the hot doctors. Dr Mark Sloan aka McSteamy (Eric Dane) stole my heart right after he came to the show.
3.Pride and Prejudice (This is my favorite book ever. I just love the characters, the setting, the manners, the time era... I can go on and on.)
4.My bed (my favorite place in my home. A place I might go back after this to heal my back)
5.Food (I love eating. I especially love Mexican, Chinese and Italian food. I could probably kill someone for a proper Mexican food right now. I used to live in United States with a Mexican family and I got used to all this tasty Mexican food... Too bad my city in Finland has no Mexican restaurants, I would probably be there every day. xD)
6.The Twilight Saga (What can I say,?)
7.My mother (I cannot imagine my life without her)
8.Bookstores (I just love the atmosphere, smell and peace of book stores.)

Read-A-Thon, update 8

I'll be back in couple of hours, I need to lay down for a while! Good luck for everyone!

Read-A-Thon, update 7: Mid-Event Survey

It is time for the Mid-Event Survey (I've been reading for 14 hours already)

Mid-Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now?
I am reading 'Dear Nobody' by Berlie Doherty

2. How many books have you read so far?
I finished reading Sophie Kinsella's 'Twenties Girl' (I had read a little less than half from it), I read Ransom my Heart by Meg Cabot so basicly I am reading my 3rd book now.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
I don't know yet what I will be reading after 'Dear Nobody'. I just pick something from my TBR pile

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?
Not really. I just didn't arrange anything special. I hardly never do anything special during the weekends.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
I've had about an hour of interruptions so far. I had to eat after the 2 hours of reading (I did it pretty fast). Now I think I will "nap" for a couple of hours and continue after that. My body feels so stiff that I think I will have to lay down for a while.

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
This is my first time doing this and I am totally suprised about the support I've got from other bloggers.

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Not really, I think it is good this way. Can't wait for the next Read-a-thon.

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?
I really don't know. Probably nothing.

9. Are you getting tired yet?
I must admit that yes, a little. My body just hurts so I think it is wise to lay down for a while.

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?
For the readers; don't stress and remember to have fun! Sleep for a while if you feel like it and then come back. I bet that no one is going to think that you failed if you close your eyes for a couple of hours.

Read-A-Thon, update 6

Hey, it's me again. I am half way through "dear nobody". It has been pretty good so far.
My body feels so stiff, I've been sitting on place for almost the whole time.
I started at 1pm of Finnish time and now it is almost 3am so it means that I've been reading for about 14 hours. I think that at some point I will have to lay down for a while and close my eyes and sleep for a couple of hours.

I am already really proud of myself, I've been reading for over 12 hours, which I think is a LOT!

Read-A-Thon, update 5

I just finished with Ransom My Heart my Meg Cabot. The beginning of the book was hilarious, the last 100 pages were little bit boring. I will post a review of it next week with other Read-A-Thon reviews. The next book will be 'Dear Nobody' by Berlie Doherty. I picked the book up from the library a couple of days ago. It is pretty short and sounds interesting which suits perfectly for this occasion.

Read-A-Thon, update 4

First, I will participate to a challenge, which is from Caribousmom's blog.

THINGS I COLLECT:
The picture quality of my camera is so crappy that I will just take pictures from Google Images so they are a little bit clearer.

NAPKINS
I started to collect napkins when I was 12 years old or something. I really don't collect them that much anymore, I only pick the prettiest napkins at this point. I have organized them by color and size. My mom and friends always laugh at my collection. But I myself think that my collection is pretty impressive and someday it will be very useful.
JEWELLERY
Okay, I am pretty addicted to jewellery. I don't mean like real diamonds or stuff, I wish, but as a student I don't have money for the real stuff. But I love to buy sparkling, fake jewellery. I have a big collection of them, a huge collection of rings and necklaces I haven't even used.SHOES
Okay, my mom hates the fact that I collect shoes. The ones I use are always laying around everywhere and it makes my mom go nuts. I love to buy shoes. I almost love them as much as books. I always buy shoes I don't even use, I just like to watch them in my closet. The weather is so crappy here in Finland that I am not even able to use ballet falts and that kind of stuff around the year, which sucks.DVD's
I think that DVD's are my second dearest collection after books. Especially my Jane Austen/19th century England collection is really dear to me. Gosh, I could watch those movies over and over again. I think that the most important piece of my collection is BBC's Pride and Prejudice adaptation, I have seen it so many times that I remember most of the lines from it. I think it is no fun to watch it with me because I always tend to tell what is going to happen next.

BOOKMARKS
My mom works at a library and they always get these pretty bookmarks these and she always brings them to me. A little while ago I got an idea to collect them and now I already have a pretty big collection of amazing bookmarks. I went to London at August and I got nuts at this one store, they had like 10 different Twilight related bookmarks. I think I bought 8 of them. :D

Read-A-Thon, update 3

Hey, it's me again. It is almost 9pm here at Finland, I have almost 8 hours of reading behind me. I have read half of the Ransom my Heart and I must say I am really enjoying it. I really thought I may be a little too old to read it, my mom was laughing at me when she saw it, but I must say that I thought wrong. This book is full of juicy parts that are not proper for kids to read. And the Finnish translation of the book is HILARIOUS! I decided not to watch the movie, I want to read more!

I will be posting more a little bit later! All you readers and followers, HAVE FUN!

Read-A-Thon, update 2

I started at 1pm Finland's time, now it is little past 4pm, I will continue reading at 4.30pm. I just finished with Sophie Kinsella's Twenties Girl. AMAZING BOOK, I will write a review about it later.
I had to keep a 15 minute break when I ate some lunch but now I am ready to roll again. My mom is going to the store and she promised to bring me some candy and peanuts. I don't feel like going to the store by myself, it takes too much time.
At 9pm comes this one movie I really want to watch, so I think I will have a break then. It is based on a novel, so maybe it counts as a reading. (I count it as reading at least, almost the same as listening to a audiobook)

The book I will start in 10 minutes is Ransom my Heart by Meg Cabot. I've been really looking for to read it and I think now it is a perfect time to do it. And I need to read it so I can return it to the library as soon as possible so others have a change to read it too.

Read-A-Thon, update 1

I got rid off my previous plans to this day so I think I can read a little more than 6 hours.
I will start now, but I will have to eat at some point, my mom is making salmon, yummy.
So at 1pm Finnish time I will start by reading Sophie Kinsella's Twenties Girl.

ALL OF YOU DOING READ-A-THON,

HAVE FUN!

New Feature

After a week long holiday I realize that next week I will have to start to work again with my studies. As I continue my studies I won't have much of time to read. And when I don't read I don't have reviews to write. I would still like to maintain my blog at the condition it is now, so after a long time of considering I decided to include a new weekly feature: MY FICTIONAL LOVER OF THE WEEK.

Okay, I know, it sounds silly. But it suits for me. I am a little silly. I love to talk about fictional guys, I cannot imagine not talking about them. So I thought that it would be a perfect topic for me to post about, because I can just go on and on with it. I put a list of my fictional love ones to the sidebar and every week I will randomly choose one of them to be the fictional lover of that week.

At Monday I will have my first lover! I numbered the fictional guys and with the help of random.org I chose the lover for the next week. And the lover will be... JOHN THORNTON!
Sounds great! I just watched North&South and fell in love with him again. I am looking forward to our week "together".

(I will be posting basic info and pictures about the fictional character. This is totally just for fun, at least I get something out of it. My list of fictional guys will probably get longer and longer, those are just the ones I picked out now.)

Great Giveaways

Cindy at Princess Bookie is having a huge amount of giveaways to celebrate the 24 hour read-a-thon. There are already at least 4 giveaways up and there will be more as we approach Saturday. Most of the giveaways right now are only to US, but there are also so international giveaways (YEY!).

So, go to Princess Bookie from HERE! and enter these awesome giveaways.

Read-A-Thon

I was first planning to the the read-a-thon for 24 hours, but because of my busy schelude I will only doing a six hour read-a-thon at Saturday.
I will start at Saturday morning at 10am (GMT+2 ) and end at 4pm. I will also be reading a little during the Saturday night.
I really don't have a pile of books to read, I don't think that I can finish that many books during six hours. I am currently reading "Twenties Girl" by Sophie Kinsella so I hope that I will be able to finish that one during the six hours.

I hope I will have something to post about the six hours at Saturday night/Sunday. I will be following the ones who are really reading the whole 24 hours, I hope that next time I will have a change to do that too.

The Random Reading Challenge: Pick number 6

The challenge is from Caribousmom's blog.

The list of possible books:
1. Jane Green- Straight Talking
2. Elin Hilderbrand- A Summer Affair
3. Lisa Greenwald- My Life in Pink&Green
4. Emily Giffin- Baby Proof
5. Amanda Grange- Mr Darcy, Vampyre
6. Sophie Kinsella- Twenties Girl
7. Julia Quinn- The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever
8. Wendy Corsi Staub- A Thoroughly Modern Princess
9. Jane Green- Swapping Lives
10. Rosie Rushton- Secret Schemes and Daring Dreams


The sixth book of the challenge will be: Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella

The Big Love by Sarah Dunn

Alison is looking for the big love. She thought she has found it but when her boyfriend for several years leaves her during the dinner party, she has to start to consider things from different angles.
Eventually Alison starts to think that does the real love, the big love, even exists. And if it does, how can you find it?

The are many new, unfamiliar things Alison goes through while she is searching for the big love. She has an affair with her boss, she has sex after the first date, she feels herself betrayed, she forgives a thing she never thought she could forget and she realizes that she herself has to find the answers to her questions.

I enjoyed this book but somehow I just felt that something was missing. I liked Alison as a character; she is a little silly but still very smart, she is independent and strong and funny. I think that the thing I missed the most was the absense of a gorgeous, amazing hero. I also look for those in books. But all in all, this was a funny, light read and it made me laugh a lot, which is a good thing, especially during the dark and rainy fall days.

Pemberley Ball RSVP

Pemberley Ball

November 20-22, 2009

Miss Annabella Huntington

Greetings! My name is Annabella Huntington. I'll be visiting Pemberley as a friend of Georgiana Darcy. Georgiana is my dearest friend of all and now for the first time I will also meet her brother, Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy. I am quite frightened about him, I have heard that he is very proud type of man. But Georgiana always tells me that he is kindest brother there can be, so I am really looking forward to meet him.

In her last letter Georgiana mentioned there is going to be a ball at Pemberley. I love balls. I told my mama that I need a new ball gown and I got it yesterday. My mama says that it is a quite modern type of a gown but at least I can be almost sure that no one else has the same type of gown with me. And I really want to be seen there. I can't wait to see all the eligible bachelors.
What comes to Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, I have only seen a painting of him, but I am almost certain that he is one of the handsomest man I've ever seen. This is how I want to imagine Mr Darcy.

The Random Reading Challenge: Pick number 5

The challenge is from Caribousmom's blog.

The list of possible books:
1. Jane Green- Straight Talking
2. Elin Hilderbrand- A Summer Affair
3. Lisa Greenwald- My Life in Pink&Green
4. Emily Giffin- Baby Proof
5. Sarah Dunn- The Big Love
6. Wendy Corsi Staub- A Thoroughly Modern Princess
7. Jane Green- Swapping Lives
8. Rosie Rushton- Secret Schemes and Daring Dreams

The fifth book of the challenge will be: The Big Love by Sarah Dunn

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

A beautiful, heart breaking story about love, music, losses, family and how to survive in the changes of life.

Mia is a 17-year-old girl. She has amazing family- a little bit hippie parents and 8-year-old brother Teddy who sometimes feels like her own child. Mia's parents are music lovers- they love old punk music and they are more than suprised when Mia decides during her third grade that she wants to play cello. During her senior year in high school Mia applies to Juilliard's and everyone is sure that she is going to get in. Mia is not sure about going to New York City. She loves music and playing but she also loves her boyfriend Alex who is not ready to go to New York City.

One February morning snow is falling down from the sky and Mia and Teddy get a free day from school. The whole family decides to spend a family day and they go for a ride. During the ride Mia's life changes completely and she has to start to make decisions about her own future while she is connected to million tubes and machines at ICU as hospital.

I loved this book. It is heart breaking to read about the thoughts Mia goes through while she is lying on the hospital bed. She floats around the hospital as a "ghost" and sees how her family and friends are suffering and at the same time realizes how much she has lost, but also how much she has left. This book is about decisions, love, friends and family and it made me both laugh and cry.

I was glad to read that there is going to be movie adaptation of this book. Robert Pattinson would be perfect Alex.

The Random Reading Challenge: Pick number 4

The challenge is from Caribousmom's Blog.

The list of possible books:
1. Jane Green- Straight Talking
2. Elin Hilderbrand- A Summer Affair
3. Lisa Greenwald- My Life in Pink&Green
4. Emily Giffin- Baby Proof
5. Sarah Dunn- The Big Love
6. Wendy Corsi Staub- A Thoroughly Modern Princess
7. Gayle Forman- If I Stay
8. Jane Green- Swapping Lives

The fourth book of the challenge will be: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Girls by Tucker Shaw

Girls, a novel by Tucker Shaw, is a modern retelling of Claire Boothe Luce's classic play The Women. The original play did not feature any males in the cast and neither does the book. Males are important part of the plot but there is no visible dialog/scenes with males.

Meet Peggy. A culinary genious from Denver. A girl who attends preppy boarding school at Aspen, Colorado. Meet Mary, Peggy's best friend. A girl who has just learned that her boyfriend Stephen is cheating on her. Meet Amber, a girl with all the gossip. Meet Sylvia, always so glamorous girl who has a secret. Meet Crystal, an older girl who is hooking up with Mary's boyfriend.

The narrator of the story, Peggy, tells what happens at Aspen during the first week of the new semester. The air is full of lies, jealousy and misunderstandings and towards the end of the book all of the girls notice who are their real friends and how small the world really is.

I really liked this book but one thing I missed was guys. I kept hoping that some point Peggy would meet a perfect guy for her or something. The thing I really liked were the recipes at the end of the book. I really must try Peggy's double butter double cheese grilled sandwiches.

The Random Reading Challenge: Pick number 3

This challenge is from Caribousmom's blog.

The list of possible books:
1. Jane Green- Straight Talking
2. Elin Hilderbrand- A Summer Affair
3. Lisa Greenwald- My Life in Pink&Green
4. Emily Giffin- Baby Proof
5. Sarah Dunn- The Big Love
6. Wendy Corsi Staub- A Thoroughly Modern Princess
7. Tucker Shaw- Girls
8. Jane Green- Swapping Lives

The third book for the challenge will be: Girls by Tucker Shaw

The Truth About Diamonds by Nicole Richie

Okay, I did not expect much from this book. I respect Nicole Richie as a woman; she has gone through a lot but she has stayed strong and now it really seems that she is happy with herself and with her life. But as a writer-- I hope that she herself has also noticed that maybe writing is not her thing.

Nicole herself is the narrator of the story. She is a friend of Chloe Parker, who is the "heroine" of the story. Chloe is a 20 something girl who has been adopted by a famous Hollywood couple when she was younger. Chloe has seen and experienced fabulous life, but also the darker side of the fame is familiar to her. She is addicted to drugs ans she always tends to fall in love with the wrong guy.
Suddenly all the things start going bad and Chloe realizes she has to get rid of ther drug addiction and she decides to go to rehab.

Chloe gets out of rehab, gets a job and even though she faces difficulties in the end everything turns out perfectly. For me that does not seem very real. Chloe also falls in love with DJ Ray, who just seems to be too perfect; loves Chloe even though they really don't know each other that well, does not care about Chloe's drug use etc.

Even though Richie is not writing about herself, she tells her own story through Chloe. Richie was adopted by Lionel Richie when she was 9 years old, she got addicted to drugs, went throught rehab and got engaged to DJ called Adam Goldstein. At the end of the book Richie thanks Adam, her own prince. It is pretty ironic to read that because Richie and Goldstein got divorced 9 months after their engagement.

Now things are good to Richie. She has been married to Joel Madden for couple of years and they have two children. I think that getting rid of her partycrazy bitchy ex-BBF Paris Hilton did good to her. What comes to her "prince" Adam-- he passed away on August 2009 as a result of "accidental" drug overdose.

As a conclusion, I have to say that I agree with Richie about one thing; Diamonds are not as important as the people we get the diamonds from.

The Random Reading Challenge: Pick number 2

The Challenge is from Caribousmom's blog.

I haven't done this for a while. I think I did pick number 2 earlier but I never got to it, so I will just do a new picking.

The list of possible books is here: (not very long list this time, I only chose library books to it)

1. Jane Green- Straight Talking
2. Elin Hilderbrand- A Summer Affair
3. Lisa Greenwald- My Life in Pink&Green
4. Emily Giffin- Baby Proof
5. Sarah Dunn- The Big Love
6. Wendy Corsi Staub- A Thoroughly Modern Princess
7. Tucker Shaw- Girls
8. Nicole Richie- The Truth About Diamonds
9. Jane Green- Swapping Lives

The second book for the challenge will be: The Truth about Diamonds by Nicole Richie
(I will start reading it right away because I cannot really sleep because I am sick :( )

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

I picked up this book because I noticed my mom reading it in Finnish. Normally I don't pick books which I know are going to end sadly because they make me depressed and think about the losses I have personally experienced in my life. I had to find this book in English and read it because the back cover caught my attention and when I found it from the database of the library I decided to give it a try.

Tessa, a 16 year old girl from England, has been sick for years. She has cancer and doctors have tried everything to make her better without success. Tessa lives in a reality and she understands that sooner or later she will die for her sickness. There are a lot of things Tessa wants to do before she dies so she creates a list of things to do. With the assistance of her friend Zoey she undergoes the 1st couple of steps of her list without feeling any better... until she meets Adam.

Adam is everything Tessa has always wanted. Tessa loves Adam and Adam loves Tessa. He does not care about her sickness. With Adam Tessa learns things about love and undergoes more steps from her list. Even some steps she had never imagined she would undergo.

I really like the style of Downham. Especially towards the end the book got really good. The style of writing Downham uses to describe the thoughts of Tessa on her last days made me speechless. I must say that I did not really enjoy the beginning of the book and many times I thought of giving up on it. I am happy that I did not because the ending was really sad and heartbreaking but at the same time also very peaceful and beautiful.

PS. I think this book would make a really good movie. I love movies like "A Walk to Remember" and "Keith" which are about the same subject - the lost of a love one to cancer.

Dewey's Read-a-Thon

I will be participating on Dewey's Read-a-Thon on 24th of October if nothing big happens. So the basic idea is to read for 24 hours. Check Dewey's site fi you are interested. My reading time would start at 3pm of Finnish time but I will probably re-arrange the time a little so it is easier for me to wake up at Saturday. And I really don't know can I read for 24 hours, but I can try. :)

BBC's Emma 2009

Here is a link for the 1st episode for the non UK readers.
I am so happy I found this, enjoy!

WATCH BBC'S EMMA 2009 EPISODE 1

The Last Chance by Sarah Dessen

Colie does not except much from her trip to North Carolina Coast. The only thing she knows is that the summer in going to be the worst summer ever!

Colie, a 15 year old girl, is very unsure and lacking confidence. She has never had friends, she has never spent enough time in one place to get friends. She has been bullied for her whole life and she feels like no one cares about her. Colie and her mother has faced a change in their life. They were both obese and they were living around United States. They did not settle anywhere. After moving to North Carolina Colie's mother start to work at a gym and after a while she has her own aerobics group where she works as a trainer. Suddenly she becomes a fitness phenomenon Kiki Sparks and she is known all over the world. She courages Colie to start dieting and she loses 45 pounds.

Kiki is having a world tour for her fitness videos and she sends Callie to her sister Mira for the summer. Mira is obese and very artistic and all the people at the town talk bad things about her but later on Colie understand that Mira does not care what other people think about her and she wants to understand how Mira does that. At her 1st night at Colby (The place in NC) Colie goes to a cafe called Last Chance and meets Isabel and Morgan. Suddenly Colie is asked to work at the cafe and for the first time she has friends. She is not used to the fact that someone might be nice to her and she notices that the friendship with Isabel and Morgan gives her courage. Colie notices that she is not the only one with the problems and she experiences things she has never experienced before as she spends time with the girls.

There is also Norman, a hippie guy who works also at the cafe. He lives with Mira and he is very artistic and he collects all these weird things. First Colie thinks that Norman is not her type but when she spends more time with him she starts to sense feelings she has never sensed before.

The Last Change is a story of new chances, the power of friends, first love and personal growth. During the summer at Colby Colie gets so much more courage and she realizes that the fault is not in her, it is on the bullies. She realizes that she has to defend herself against the bullying.

I thoughoutly enjoyed this book and I think that Dessen does great job in describing the feelings and actions of Collie. The book was fast to read and it is great to read who the confidence of Colie grows from page to page.