finally

(found here)

i finally, finally, finally got my computer fixed! which means i can finally burn cds for my car, send out all the emails i've been meaning to send and catch up on my favorite blogs. also classes start today so im going a little crazy. promise to be back soon with another book reccomendation!

my summer in books

when i was growing up one of the first thing my older brother and i did every summer was sign up at our library for the summer reading program. i remember the journals we filled up with stickers keeping track of how long we had read and lists of the books we read. as we got older if you read over 200 hours you got invited to a meeting with our country freeholders and were presented with a special award. him and i would read and read and read at times it was all i did during the day.

i remember getting lost in my favorite books as i grew up it started out with madeline, nate the great, the american girl series, harriet the spy are you there god its me margaret?, or little women. when i read those books i was transported to a whole different world and i never wanted to leave. in high school my recreational reading slowed down because of great expectations, silas marner, hamlet, as i lay dying and many more books on endless required reading lists. even though at times the required books were painful (beowulf) there were some that stood out in my mind that i would appreciate for years to come including to kill a mockingbird, and jane eyre. as i approached college i looked forward to summers where i was free to read as i please. this summer was a perfect example of that. being the dorky list maker that i am, i read through my favorite blogs and compiled a list. every week this summer i’ve gone to the library and brought it along. although it has not been quite the summer i had anticipated, i really have enjoyed all the books i have read.
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so in a way this is a way for me to remember and look back on the ones that i http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhave cherished and adored to recall on future days. and also to share with you readers, if there are any book lovers out there http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifreading this i hope you appreciate these next few posts.


to start off i highly recommend anything by joshilyn jackson. this summer i read "gods in Alabama", "the girl who stopped swimming", and "between, Georgia". Jackson also has one more out called "backseat saints" which i havent had a chance to read. after one chapter i was immediately sucked into the stories and hoped they would never end. i think what i liked most was how simply written they were and how it was everyday life. the endings of the books and the plot is realistic, they weren't some silly chick- lit story where in the end everyone is happy and all issues are resolved. i think my favorite out of the three would have to be "the girl who stopped swimming" but all of them are enjoyable reads.

quote of the week

happiness is homemade

via

lately happiness is:

- birthday girls (the little girl i babysit turns 4 today)
- bike rides on new to me bikes
- this song on repeat
- finally seeing a great movie
- books finished, finished and just started
- my dad buying me an older edition of this book on ebay and surprising me with it.
- borders closing and enabling my book buying habit
- thrift store finds including a set of my grandmothers china, a handkerchief embroidered with daisies, and old amrtha stewart living magazines
- texts from friends in far off states
- rainy days that last forever
- sleeping in
- blackberries
- monte cristo sandwiches with my grandmother

i totally saw this idea on annie's blog and loved it so much so i decided to share what's making me happy lately and would love to hear/see whats making you happy lately

quote of the week

a confession

today i have a confession to make, all summer i've been working and the majority of my paychecks have gone towards buying books. i think on one day i bought 4 books in barnes and noble and now that the websites i buy books from have my information saved it makes it so much harder to think and weigh my options of buying a book. the worst part is if i buy a book or two in a series i feel obligated of course to hunt down the rest of them until i own them all. its getting to be an addiction of mine.

some of my favorite reads this summer have been "the help", "the hunger games" (ihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif've only bought the first one so i'm searching out the second and third daily), "the girl with the dragon tattoo" (again i've read the first two but have yet to find the third in paperback), "the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society", anything joshilyn jackson, and "hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet". it seems every day i come across more and more books i want to read. i plan on going further in depth about some of my favorites so far but as you can tell its going to be pretty hard to pick which ones.

also i just bought "the supper of the lamb" which i started the other day and im anxiously waiting for my deliveries of "the likeness", "into the woods" and "little bee"

if your looking for some great reviews check out annie's "bookish" section because about 60% of the time thats where i read for book recommendations or just read her whole blog because its fabulous

quote of the week

you've got mail

let's talk movies for a second, my absolute favorite of all time is you've got mail, pretty much anything by nora ephron and meg ryan. when i was young i had a friend who in the summer i spent more time at her house then mine, and all we did was watch movies. mostly they were marykate and ashley oslen ones but the one i remember watching the most was you've got mail and its stuck with me ever since, i think my dvd copy is very lovingly worn.


reasons why i absolutely love love love you've got mail:

1. birdie
2. it makes me want to love new york, it portrays new york in such a beautiful way it makes me consider living there and i hate cities so that thought usually passes quickly
3. kathleen kelly
4. shop around the corner, i want to work there, now!
5. the emails between joe and kathleen make me yearn for a relationship like that.
6. F-O-X




favorite quotes:

"Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life - well, valuable, but small - and sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven't been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around? I don't really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So good night, dear void."


Joe Fox: You know, sometimes I wonder...
Kathleen Kelly: What?
Joe Fox: Well... if I hadn't been Fox Books and you hadn't been The Shop Around the Corner, and you and I had just, well... met...
Kathleen Kelly: I know.
Joe Fox: Yeah. I would have asked for your number, and I wouldn't have been able to wait twenty-four hours before calling you and saying, "Hey, how about... oh, how about some coffee or, you know, drinks or dinner or a movie... for as long as we both shall live?"
Kathleen Kelly: Joe...
Joe Fox: And you and I would have never been at war. And the only thing we'd fight about would be which video to rent on a Saturday night.
Kathleen Kelly: Well, who fights about that?
Joe Fox: Well, some people. Not us.
Kathleen Kelly: We would never.
Joe Fox: If only.


"Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower"

"What will NY152 say today, I wonder. I turn on my computer. I wait impatiently as it connects. I go online, and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words: You've got mail. I hear nothing. Not even a sound on the streets of New York, just the beating of my own heart. I have mail. From you."

"Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms. "


"When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does."

"Joe Fox: Don't cry, Shopgirl. Don't cry.
Kathleen Kelly: I wanted it to be you. I wanted it to be you so badly."


i could go on forever but i'll leave it at that