What Would Audrey Do?

written by Pamela Keogh

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is full of wonderful lessons and ideas for living life to the fullest. It is also a story of a remarkable woman. Audrey Hepburn was loved by all who knew her. She was full of grace and humility and always put others first. She was popular and successful actress and yet kept her integrity and gracious spirit. This book looks at her life and shares with you just how she did it. I had fun reading this book and have already begun putting some of these lessons into practice.

The Ladies of Grace Adieu

The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke

This is a book of delightful short stories all involving the world of faerie. It was beautifully written! I loved each story and was almost sorry to see them end. I picked this up as a means of introducing myself to Ms. Clarke’s writing. I am now on a search for her book Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. These stories should be a must read for anyone who enjoys faerie. I’ll leave you with a quote from the book.

“. . . magic belongs as much to the heart as to the head and everything which is done, should be done from love or joy or righteous anger.”

Awesome Husband Brings Home a Bit of Vintage Goodness!

I simply had to share this lovely gift from my husband. The school library was having a booksale and my husband came home with these beautiful vintage books! It was a complete surprise! He did a beautiful job selecting books he knew I would love. Pictured, you will see three Nancy Drews and a book by Louisa May Alcott. Like most girls, I read every Nancy Drew I could find and eventually graduated to the Nancy Drew Files. I read Little Women in the 5th grade for the first time and have been a fan of Miss Alcott ever since. These have brought back so many pleasant memories. There is also one titled The Fun Enclyopedia which is really cool! It is full of all sorts of ideas and projects. The last two books are Treasure Island and The Robe. These all have copyrights in the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s. It is sweet to know that he thought of me and wanted to bring me a bit of joy. I am truly blessed! Thank you Sweetie!!

Dracula – Book Review

by Bram Stoker

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I had always thought that it would be too scary and although it had its fearful, creepy moments it was nothing like I expected. The story is told through the journals of the main characters. It begins with Jonathan Harker meeting Count Dracula in his home. The story then travels to England where you’ll meet Mina, Jonathan’s fiancee, and her friend Lucy. You will meet Lucy’s beaus, Dr. Seward, Arthur, and Quincy. Dr. Van Helsing enters the scene when Lucy becomes ill. The story returns to Dracula’s home for its climatic ending. This is a lovely gothic story with a struggle between good and evil that is timeless. I will say that the book is quite different from the Coppola’s movie. Bram Stoker never wrote an ageless love story between Dracula and Mina. She was in love with and devoted to Jonathan beginning to end. It is still a wonderful story and one I recommend reading. I am glad I decided to give it a go in spite of my reservations.

A library to carry with you

I recently came across this beautiful necklace and simply had to share.

This and other goodies can be found at The Black Spot Books.

Knitted Goodies

My husband has been hard at work learning to knit and the first fruits of his labor have been bestowed upon me. I am so proud of what my sweetie has accomplished that I just had to share these wonderful gifts!

a pretty green bookmark

a lovely knitted bag

perfect for holding a book

Seeing his accomplishments and his ability to stick with it and keep learning is a wonderful example for me. It spurs me on to keep working on the Mickey Mouse I’m trying to cross-stitch. Hopefully, one day soon I’ll be able to share that as well.

Illustrations by Martin Harris

I discovered Martin Harris’s illustrations recently while perusing the world wide web and have become completely enamored. They have a vintage storybook quality that I find quite charming.

“A Day at the Zoo”

“The Haunted Railway”

He is a Melbourne artist who works with watercolour and gouache. His works can be found on his website, MartinHarrisArt, and at the Outre Gallery. He has also made some works for the Third Annual PoMoNoBo Hallowe’en Art Show taking place on October 2, 2009 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

“Little Gothic Library Vol 2 – The Masque of the Red Death”

Mr. Harris has created illustrations of 3 other Poe stories/poems. This one is my favorite! As a child, I had this story in a book with a cassette tape. I used to read and listen over and over again. I realize that this is something of a morbid story, but I assure you I had a very happy childhood.

Jane Austen in Comics!

A new discovery was made lastnight and I simply felt the need to share with all Austen fans! I was idly meandering the aisles at Books-A-Million when Hubby ran up waving a comic book. I looked up amused and quickly became excited! This is what he had to show me.

Pride and Prejudice has been made into a comic book. There are five issues in all and, of course, the bookstore only had issue 5 of 5. I did the only thing I could do. I put it back on the shelf with a sigh, came home, and scoured the internet for more information. Marvel is planning to release all five comics in a graphic novel on October 14, 2009. I can hardly wait! To find out more you can visit Marvel’s website by clicking here. I’ll leave you with a visual of the novel.

BookTome

This one is for all you readers, book lovers, and book collectors out there. BookTome is a program my dear hubby found which allows you to scan or enter your books by ISBN. You can then catagorize them, tag them, and print out many different reports. If you participate in any of the book challenges around the World Wide Web, this program will make it easy to keep up with your reading activities. You can create any catagory you like and perform searches by tag. You can also mark a book as read. Again, this will help in keeping up with those challenges. It is an easy to master program and a free download. Just click here if you are interested. Did I mention you can pull up books by author? Yet another handy feature. Here are a few screen shots gathered from around the web.

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre
by Amanda Grange

I finished this fun, light-hearted book today! The book begins with Lizzy’s and Jane’s wedding day and follows Lizzy and Mr. Darcy on their wedding tour through the continent. What follows is an account of their adventures and Lizzy’s discovery that Mr. Darcy is a vampyre. I enjoyed the adventure and it was fun to revisit Jane Austen’s world, particulary that of Pride and Prejudice.