Julie H.!!!!!!!!Congratulations, Julie. I will be forwarding your shipping info on to Susan McBride.
My review of The Cougar Club by Susan McBride will be up shortly. Leave a comment on that post and be entered to win a copy. That’s right. I’m giving away 2!
This is week two of the new amd improved weekly quiz where I’ve decided to have them count for something! While you all get adjusted this first round will last through February and there will be 2 prizes! Check out the details HERE.
The biggest difference is that you don’t have to be first. Everyone gets an equal shot. Your comments will show up tomorrow.
Last week we did lovers for Valentine’s Day, but that day is done and tragedy has struck! This week I’m going to give you two actors who have portrayed famous lovers onscreen. You tell me the loving, yet doomed couple (fictional names, not actors names, last names are not necessary, 5 points) and/or the movie title (5 points). Each question you get right is worth 10 points. List as many as you know and no cheating off other commenters Good luck!
Want to see the leaderboard from week one? Answers from last week’s quiz? And please guess if you only know one or two. You’ll still be eligible for a prize!
1. 
Rose & Jack – Titanic
2.
Bonnie & Clyde – Bonnie & Clyde
3.
Rhett & Scarlet – Gone With the Wind
4. 
Molly & Sam – Ghost
5.
Oliver & Jenny – Love Story
6.
Romeo & Juliet – Romeo & Juliet
7.
Tristan & Isolde – Tristan & Isolde
8.
Cleopatra & Mark Anthony – Cleopatra
9.
Ada & Inman – Cold Mountain
10.
Ilsa & Rick – Casablanca
Come back Friday to see the answers.
This week it’s all about snow, something most people in the country are now very familiar with. Here are the first five that came to mind.
Doctor Zhivago It’s not really a favorite of mine, but I loved the winter fashion.
Alive This has one of my biggest fears on display, a plane crash. Oh, and possibly getting eaten by friends.
A Simple Plan I read the book first and loved it. And the movie with Billy Bob Thronton, Bill Paxton and Bridget Fonda shows that the chilly landscape isn’t as desolate as a heart obsessed with money.
Misery I watched this one for the first time only a few years ago and loved it. Annie was one crazy fan.
Frosty the Snowman A classic. Just watched it again a few months ago. Love me some Frosty.
Stop by The Bumbles and check out other winter movies that are sure to match your white landscape. Is there a favorite of yours that I’m missing? Let me know, maybe it’s one I have to see.
Finished 2-9-10, rating 4/5, romance, pub. 2002
Book 4 of the Deadly series (Book 1) (Book 2) (Book 3)
I’ve now been rereading this series for a month and I am having so much fun. This is the book where it does begin to feel a bit soap opera-ish, but in a good way. The mystery that sets the book in motion is dropped halfway through and not mentioned again until the last page. Another mystery did present itself, as did a surprising declaration of marriage, and a beating that was never resolved. Actually,there was a lot that was not resolved in this book, which is why it is a bit like a soap opera with a big cast of characters and a lot going on.
Francesca’s relationship with Rick reaches a tipping point when she receives a note from his wife and her friendship with Calder heats up. Rick is the good guy out to reform the New York police department and his half-brother Calder is the cad only out for himself…and Francesca.
There is no way to read this one without having read the others and get any enjoyment. I think it would be too confusing. That being said, I love this series, so if you like romances I recommend finding book one.
This came from my personal library.
1991
Cast- Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Ted Levine, Scott Glenn
It was the top 5 Oscars – Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay
FBI trainee, Clarisse Starling is sent to interview Hannibal Lecter, the mass murderer, to see if he can help the FBI find the serial killer known as Buffalo Bill. When the daughter of an important Senator goes missing and Buffalo Bill is the suspect, time is short and Clarisse must rely on Hannibal’s help.
Why I love it – I think the number one reason I love this film is Anthony Hopkin’s chilling portrayal of Hannibal ‘the Cannibal’ Lecter. I could not tear my eyes away from his cold glare and his creepy voice. He is what most people remember about this movie and he is onscreen for only 16 minutes. How awesome do you have to be to win a Best Actor Oscar for only 16 minutes of face time?! I love his psychoanalysis of Clarisse and Buffalo Bill, even if I don’t exactly approve of his eating habits.
And a close second to why I love this movie is Jodie Foster’s tough, yet vulnerable Clarisse. She’s a woman in a male dominated field and it only makes her work harder. I love the scene in the car with her boss Crawford when she throws his apology for treating her differently in front of the men back in his face. She does not make a scene, but she does make her point.
This is a crime thriller, horror, suspenseful drama that has is all, if you can stomach a little gore. Okay, maybe more than a little. I loved the series Monk and it took me two full seasons to stop picturing Captain Stottlemeyer as the crazy, skin obsessed Buffalo Bill.
I loved watching this again last night. I had forgotten just how good it was. I’m including one of my favorite lines from the movie. When I order Chianti I still think of Hannibal 😉
So, do you remember in December when I asked you all to choose 50 of the books I’d read this year? (post here) Well, here’s what happened…
“I’ve had the goal of reading War and Peace since I was 8 years old and saw the Charlie Brown New Year’s Eve special where Charlie Brown was assigned to read that over Christmas break and had to wheel the book around in a wagon. But I’ve never gotten around to read it. Maybe if you read it, I will be motivated to read it as well – a peer pressure kind of situation.” Angie
“War & Peace: This one’s on my “bucket list” of books to read before I die. It’s not about the story, it’s about accomplishing the reading task! I got a new hardback copy & Cliff’s notes for my birthday this year.” Laura
“War and Peace by Tolstoy. I have not read it in English, however, Tolstoy was a genius when it came to literature and this book will provide you with so many things to think about, this book goes beyond simply war, but happiness, life, and what is necessary.” Jennifer
and Hannah added this endorsement, “I almost said you should read War and Peace, because it’s one of my favorite books, but I don’t think a person can read and enjoy the tome without really wanting to read it.” Hannah
As I tallied the votes this was the one book that troubled me the most. Could I make it through such a big (1215 pages), difficult (I’ve never read Tolstoy), and boring (There. I said it. I think it could be boring. Please don’t judge me) classic? And then I received the best email from Molly at The Bumbles suggesting that we read this one together. I was relieved and excited and touched that I’d have such a great blogging friend to get me through 🙂 Molly is awesome and anyone not familiar with The Bumbles should click on over there, as soon as you’ve finished reading this.
So, here’s the plan. Molly and I will post a War & Peace review every Thursday as we make our way through the book. We’ll each be focused on four different characters. I’ve got Natasha, Prince Andrei, Vasily and Maria. And Molly will be covering Pierre, Nikolai, Helene and Sonya. And we’re going to try to make it fun. Don’t ask me how because I’m still working on it, but you know Molly will make it fun.
Wanna read along with us? We’ll be posting about Volume I Part I next Thursday so you have time! Or you can just read our reviews and claim you really read it to all your friends. Either way, I hope you’ll join us for the journey.
Do you want to read Molly’s take on this? And know where the title of this post comes from? Please visit The Bumbles and let her know you’ll be there for us both as we take on this classic.
Finished 2-08-10, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 2008
“No pictures, no clothes, no photos. I mean, you’ve wiped out every reference to our past. Our family might not have happened. There was no point in its existing for the last two hundred years if it’s got nothing to show for itself.”
It is an interesting view but not one I share. Is it really necessary to record your life in order to make it worthwhile or commendable? Is it worthless to die without reference? Surely those testimonials last another generation or two at most, and even then they don’t offer much meaning. We all know we’re a mere fleck in the tremendous universal cycle of energy, but no one can abide the thought of their life, lived so intensely and exhaustively, being lost when they die, as swiftly and as meaningless as an unspoken idea.
Chapter 3
Ginny is an odd duck and a questionable narrator. Her vivacious sister Vivian is returning to their Dorset, England home after 50 years away and Ginny is nervous, not sure why her younger sister is coming back. Vivian left the house when she was just 15 years old for London where she lived, worked and fell in love. Ginny stayed home to study moths with her father, a famous lepidopterist. When Vivian asks her sister to help her have a child, Ginny said yes, unable to ever tell her sister no.
Vivian’s return home brought into focus that there is more than one way of looking at a childhood spent in the same house, two ways of looking at your parents and their motivations and sometimes even your own. This was a dark look into the thoughts of a woman who seemed to have some struggle with reality. Ginny had become a recluse and I thought at first the years alone may be why she was so strange, but that was not the case. She billed herself as the sensible sister, a genius when it came to moths and keeping the family together, but by the end that is up for debate.
I did not like Ginny and never did connect with her. As Ginny doled out facts, there was always something moving the story forward, so I was always interested, but the pages and pages about moths throughout the book really did slow the story down. The story is strange and an interesting psychological study and the end totally threw me. Actually, I’m still trying to piece together a few things that were purposefully left out and I’m not sure I’ll ever really figure it out. If you can live with that then give this book a try.
This is from my personal library and was chosen for me by Jennifer and Sandee. Here’s what Jennifer had to say…”I listened to this on audio and thought it was marvelous – not as good as The Thirteenth Story, but very, very good.”
This is a new kinda weekly quiz. I’ve taken a few ideas from other blogs (especially The Life & Times of Michael5000) and decided to have these weekly quizzes count for something! While you all get adjusted this first round will last through February and there will be 2 prizes! Check out the details HERE.
The biggest difference is that you don’t have to be first. Everyone gets an equal shot.
This week I’m going to give you two actors who have portrayed favorite lovers onscreen. You tell me the loving couple (fictional names, not actors names, last names are not necessary, 5 points) and/or the movie title (5 points). Each question you get right is worth 10 points. List as many as you know and no cheating off other commenters 🙂 Good luck! Last names are not necessary.
1. 
Westley & Buttercup from The Princess Bride
2. 
Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy from Pride & Prejudice
3. 
Bridget Jones & Mark Darcy from Bridget Jones’s Diary
4. 
Harry Burns & Sally Albright from When Harry Met Sally
5. 
Danny Zuko & Sandy Olsson from Grease
6. 
Tommy Albright & Fiona Campbell from Brigadoon
7. 
Paula Pokrifki & Zack Mayo from An Officer and a Gentleman
8. 
Erica Barry & Harry Sanborn from Something’s Gotta Give
9.
Terry McKay & Nickie Ferrante from An Affair to Remember
10. 
Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman & Johnn Castle from Dirty Dancing
Come back on Friday to see the answers.
I loved that scene! Yes, I know they aren’t moths, but it’s a good creature so I thought I’d start with that. And now on to one of the moth movies and it’s a good one because we never actually get to see the moth creature. I was creeped out by the movie, but I did get to watch Richard Gere 🙂
And for my last entry I thought I’d go with real moths, like my book. The movie is creepy and sinister.
I just watched the first movie made from these Thomas Harris books and saw Brian Cox as the original Hannibal Leckter. If you’re interested it’s Manhunter (1986).
Finished 1-29-10, rating 4.5/5, romance, pub. 2002
Book 3 in the Deadly series (Book 1 review) (Book 2 review)
Things are heating up for Francesca and the married, but informally separated police commissioner, Rick Bragg. They are barely fighting their attraction to each other, there is a murderer on the loose and, of course, Francesca is vital to the investigation. Two women have been brutally slain and Joel’s mother, Maggie, is in grave danger. Francesca’s mother agrees to let Maggie and her four children move into the mansion, but only if Francesca agrees to be set up by her mother. Calder, Rick’s cad of a brother, is the intended target of this matchmaking and Rick doesn’t like it. Francesca’s sister is having her own man troubles after confronting her husband over an affair with a neighbor.
There is romance, mystery and a wonderful sense of New York City in 1902. The mystery was solid and it wasn’t until all was revealed that it made complete sense, which is a good thing! And while I like Rick, he does have a wife and in 1902 he is really bringing scandal on Francesca by continuing to encourage her. They are perfectly suited, but he is not available. That is the interest in this series for me because it is so true to life. Sometimes there is just no perfect choice and the journey to making a decision reveals so much about your character.
There is so much to like about this series, but I will say the same thing I said last week about the heavy-handed way men sometimes act toward the women, if it bothers you, read something else. And you really do want to read this series in order.
This book came from my personal library.
Stacy's Books 
