Mailbox Monday & What Are You Reading?

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

I only have one addition this week, a Dutch non-fiction book, from which the translated title is From Stone Age Until City Wall. It's a series of articles about archeaology in Twente, which is a part of the Netherlands. The Dutch title is Van steentijd tot stadsmuur.


It's Monday! What are you reading?

Books I completed this week:

The Cross-Country Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini (review)
The Inheritors by William Golding (to be reviewed)
Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder (to be reviewed)

Books to read this week:

I want to finish Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie. After that, I plan to read An Autobiography by Agatha Christie.

Sunday Salon: Agatha Christie Edition

In the past two weeks, I finished The Cross-Country Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini, The Inheritors by William Golding, and Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder.

On my stack of half-read books is Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie. I'm going to read that today, not only to finish it, but also because looking at my TBR stack, I see that a disproportional amount of the books on that stack are Agatha Christie books, It's time to tackle that stack!

When I've finished Ordeal by Innocence, I'm going to start An Autobiography by Agatha Christie. Not sure I'll get to that today, but I'm certainly going to read it this week. And, should I have enough time to read another book this week, I'll read another Agatha Christie mystery that's on my shelf, not sure which one yet.

Bookreview: The Cross-Country Quilters

Author: Jennifer Chiaverini
Genre: Realistic
Published: 2001
Personal rating: 5/5
Yearly count: 17

This third book in the Elm Creek Quilt series once again focusses on a group of women, each with their own, very recognizable, problems. They meet each other at the Elm Creek Quilt Camp, and make a pact. They have to solve their problem (or at the very least try their best) and then they can make a quilt block representing their victory over the problem. A year after meeting for the first time, they will meet again at quilt camp, hopefully to finish the quilt toegther.

This book was once again a heartwarming book, and fits wonderfully in the Elm Creek Quilt series. I had a bit of a problem with getting fully immersed in the story, but that evaporated after the first two chapters. Wonderful book, a definite reccommendation.


Picture of the book taken from the Elm Creek Quilt website.

On Holiday!

I will be on holiday from today, 17 September 2009, until Friday 28 September 2009. Normal posting will resume on Saturday 29 September 2009.

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Here's my loot. A lot of it is non-fiction, mostly because I've got a history project going, and also because I've got enough non-fiction here at home.


A children's book about a brother and sister going hunting for dinosaur fossiles in Nebraska. Of course, they're not the only ones!


A book in the The Knowledge series. A great series for kids, and also as a fun starting point in dinosaur reading.


This book is all about the reptiles living in the prehistoric seas.


Same series as above, only now with the focus on prehistoric flying reptiles.


A Dutch guide to fossiles, how to find them, prepare them, and actually do something with them.


A magnificent book at first sight, just paging through it. Great pictures, and it looks like the information in it is fairly comprehensive and complete.

So, can you guess what topic of historical study I'm at now?

MOst pictures were taken from Amazon, but the In The Sea picture was taken from Dixons Entertainment, and the Dutch fossile guide came from www.bol.com.

Read-a-thon announcement!

The Dewey’s Read-a-Thon, Autumn 2009 edition, will be held October 24-25, 2009.

Go to this post for more information.

I will be joining again this time as a reader. Please join too, either as a reader, a cheerleader, or just someone to help out with organizing!

Mailbox Monday & What Are You Reading?

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

Here's my new additions to my ever growing TBR stack:


Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox

This is the sixth book of the Artemis Fowl series, and according to the author it's the last one for at least 3 years. Which means it had better have a killer ending! The last book ended in a sort-of cliff hanger, and the consequences of that should be in this one. I'm very curious about this book, and if it will live up to the other five!


The Natural History Museum at South Kensington

I picked this book up on my trip to London. It tells the entire history of the museum up to 1980. I'm curious how the book is written, but I'm sure I'll find the subject interesting.


It's Monday! What are you reading?

Books I completed this week:

Emma by Jane Austen (review)
Married by Mistake by Abby Gaines (review)

Books to read this week:

I want to finsih The Cross-Country Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini. If I have the time, I hope to start reading The Inheritors, but I doubt it.

Sunday Salon: Chucking the Challenges

I'm chucking my challenges out of the window. Yes, you heard me right, all challenges that have a time limit have been discarded. Which means I can read without guilt! No more thinking 'I really should read a book for my challenges'. The only challenge I'm still participating in is the Book Around the World Challenge, but that's a perpetual one.

So, now what? Now, I am reading whatever I want, with the caveat that the books I'm reading should come from my TBR stack that I already own. Still, I get one free pass a month to read a book not from that TBR stack. Why such a rule? Simple, my stack is getting way too large! I gotta start reading some of those books...

Anyway, I'm reading The Cross-Country Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini at the moment, a book that has been on my TBR stack for about a year, if not more. I had a bit of trouble getting into the story, but now I'm on a role!

What's the score with your challenges? And what are you reading at the moment?

Bookreview: Married by Mistake

Author: Abby Gaines
Genre: Romance
Published: 2007
Personal rating: 3/5
Yearly count: 16

Casey Greene, tired of being a pushover to the people she loves, lures her procrastinating fiancé on to a surprise wedding TV show—so she has only herself to blame when he jilts her in front of millions of viewers. Cynical TV station owner Adam Carmichael is an unlikely rescuer, but his plan for a fake wedding is the only way for Casey to avoid total humiliation and Adam’s company to hang on to a valued sponsor. But when a quirk of Tennessee law makes their marriage legit, things go from bad to worse…

This book was a fun read, and that's saying something, because there aren't that many contemporary romances I really like. But when two unlikely people get married by mistake, and decide to pretend to be actually married and in love, at least for a while, you know the book is going to be good. Then throw in two people falling in love, but not knowing the other one is in love too, and a matchmaking stephmother who has her own love-trouble, and the romantic comedy is bound to be entertaining. A nice book to read, romantic, funny, and sometimes sizzling.


Description and picture taken from the site of Abby Gaines.

Did Not Finish....

So far this year, there are two books I did not finish.

I didn't finish The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, because I just couldn't get into the story. The voice of the story is very particular, and I just couldn't get into it. I stopped after 50 pages.

Now, I've stopped reading my second book for this year, The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom. I thought I'd like it, after all, it was a detective/mystery, it was about missing books, and the main character was a librarian. What's not to like? Actually, a whole lot. I didn't like the main character, who was just pathetic, I didn't like the people in the town, I didn't like any character at all, and I also didn't like any of the happenings of the book. It was a bit like failed slapstick in writing, it just made me cringe. I held out until page 154, but then I really couldn't read on any more.

It used to be that I felt guilty if I didn't finish a book, but nowadays, I just pick up another one. My TBR stack is too high to concern myself with books I really don't like.

Bookreview: Emma

Author: Jane Austen
Genre: Historical romance
Published: 1815
Personal rating: 5/5
Yearly count: 15

Emma is a book about, you guessed it, Emma. Or, to be more precise, Emma Woodhouse. Emma lives in a fantasy world of her own making, and this gets het into trouble more than once as she tries to match people up in accordance to how she views the world. Mr. Knightley, who has a much more realistic view of the world, can only point out her faults in the vain hope she will listen to him. Through Emma's actions, a lot of people go through a lot of trouble before everything finally settles in it's rightful place.

Emma is a delightful book, which is all the more extraordinary if you stop and think about it, for nothing much happens in it. Still, it captivates the reader and draws you in Emma's world. A very lovely read.


Picture of the book taken from the Wordsworth Classics site.