Random quiz post

For once I'm not doing a quiz to trick y'all into thinking I regularly post. This one interested me.
Behold! A fully completed quiz.
If there are American typos that I've not picked up on, I apologise profusely.

1. Favorite childhood book?

Agent Angel, by Annie Dalton, and Harry Potter, by JK Rowling. Both of these series followed me well into my teens.

2. What are you reading right now?

From Notting Hill With Love… Actually, by Ali McNamara.

3. What books do you have on request at the library?

I don’t have any at the moment, due to awfully high overdue fees. I liked re-reading my books.

4. Bad book habit?

Starting one, flicking to the middle, and flicking to the end to decide whether or not I’ll read the whole thing. It was a smart move with Fitzwilliam Darcy: Rock Star, though I can’t imagine what possessed me to read it to begin with.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?

Again, none, due to the aforementioned overdues.

6. Do you have an e-reader?

I’ve downloaded the iBooks, Kindle and Bluefire apps on my phone – it makes for easy reading on the train trips to uni.

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?

Several if I’m going to draw them out; if it’s a good enough book, I usually have it finished in a few hours so there’s no chance to have multiples.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?

Not really, except I’ve tried branching out a bit more. There’s a lot more that I’ve found through trawling review sites. My blog isn’t 100% devoted to books, obviously, so there you have it.

9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?)

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star by Heather Lynn Regaud, or Unsticky, by Sara Manning. Can’t figure out why I read them. They were vapid reads, and Fitzwilliam Darcy: Rock Star just ruined Pride and Prejudice. Ruined it. Unsticky seems to be the book version of Pretty Woman, and Pretty Woman didn’t appeal to me either.

10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?

Not very often, though a notable exception was The Godfather – and that was awesome. Awesome in all the ways.

12. What is your reading comfort zone?

YA, adult fic, classics, historical fic and chick-lit.

13. Can you read on the bus?

Oddly enough, I can’t read books, but I can read on my phone just fine. Trains are easier to read on.

14. Favorite place to read?

My bed, or my parents’ lovely corner couch. The hammock used to be great for reading in too, before the dog claimed it as her own and broke it.

15. What is your policy on book lending?

I share, occasionally. If I like you I share.

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?

Not intentionally, ever.

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?

*gasp* Get thee out of here. Get out. No. You do not do that to books.

18. Not even with text books?

Okay, yes. I do this to my textbooks (well, more highlight). I also do it to my Bible.

19. What is your favorite language to read in?

English. I’m working on Spanish, I can understand bits but not enough to make my reading experience smooth.

20. What makes you love a book?

The characters have to draw me in. For instance, I just read The Jane Austen Marriage Manual (Kim Izzo) and The Wedding Season (Su Dharmapala). Both very generic chick lit formulas – I needed something very simple for post-op, and I was sick of slogging my way through big texts courtesy of uni. JAMM had nothing to offer in the way of characters – why anyone would go for Kate is beyond me, and every character was two-dimensional and boring. The Wedding Season, however, was brilliant – because of the characters. Heck, even the four-year-old was realistic.

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?

Friends, covers, and my old school librarian, Gloria.

22. Favorite genre?

YA, primarily. Chick lit is just not as good as it used to be, whereas YA just goes from strength to strength.

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)

Fantasy. When I find the right fantasy, I get into it to near Potter levels, but I don’t know enough authors to keep my reading up.

24. Favorite biography?

David Sedaris, When You Are Engulfed in Flames. Okay, it’s memoir, but it’s amazing and brilliant and why can’t I be David Sedaris unghhhhhh

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?

I don’t think so. Self-help books are hilarity.

26. Favorite cookbook?

Marie Claire Kitchen, and anything Donna Hay. Donna Hay is a complete genius and I want to become the monster that lives in her kitchen devouring all her baked goods. Sort of like Cookie Monster, except baked goods are an always food.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?

The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green. It made me realise that my gosh, my life is good.

28. Favorite reading snack?

Tomato soup. Odd, I know. Also enjoy two-minute noodles.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.

Could not understand the appeal of Eragon, nor the Sookie Stackhouse series. Both of them were boring as anything and, in the case of SS, was filled with way too much sex for me to consider it normal. Why does vampirism equal higher-than-average sexytimes, as opposed to the far more rational fleeing?

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?

Very rarely read critical reviews.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?

If the book is horrifyingly bad, I am vocal. Actually, no matter what, I’m vocal. Thankfully I’ve not read a lot of books that  I openly despise.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you choose?

Spanish, because I want to read Neruda in Spanish. And The Shadow of the Wind (which I actually own in Spanish but is taking forever to get through). And Marquez. Spanish-language authors really are magnificent, and that’s reading a translation. Imagine how they must be in Spanish, which is an infinitely more beautiful language than English I do believe.

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read? 

Anna Karenina, because it was huge. Worth every page.

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?

The Count of Monte Cristo, because I’ve heard so many things about it that are magnificent and I don’t want to be disappointed.

35. Favorite Poet?

Neruda. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that before, ever, because – I can’t keep up the sarcasm.

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?

As many as they allow (so for the Richmond-Tweed libraries, that’s 20).

37. How often have you returned book to the library unread?

Never. They all are read, repeatedly.

38. Favorite fictional character? 

I’ve covered this here.

39. Favorite fictional villain?

Voldemort. Oooh. I also like Wickham.

40. Books you’re most likely to bring on vacation?

Whatever’s on my phone, and whatever I can afford while I’m away.

41. The longest you’ve gone without reading.

Never more than a week or two.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.

Beastly. I liked the movie and the book was just blerghhhhh.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?

My thoughts, and occasionally story ideas.

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?

Atonement, The Notebook, Pride and Prejudice 2005 (I await the rocks and spears)… and Beastly, because it was awesome and way better than the book.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?

Goblet of Fire and A Walk to Remember. GoF was way too rushed (so much awesome they missed). And, A Walk to Remember? Come on, whoever directed that. The book was amazing to begin with. Why did you have to make it so… painful?

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?

Probably a hundred or so. Would have been on a box set or just going all out and buying happiness.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?

Quite a bit. Voice is important for me.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?

Boredom. If the characters are just irritating, or the plot is ridiculous, or the writing is just atrocious, I’m ready to put them away.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?

I group by category (fiction/non), then by genre, then by author within genre.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?

Keep. They be my books.

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?

Right now, just The Great Gatsby. The film’s coming out soon and I want to enjoy it as a film, before falling happily into the book.

52. Name a book that made you angry.

Atonement, Ian McEwan. But it was a perfect and brilliant anger, and I love that it made me angry.

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?

Technically, not a book, but The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Also Nineteen Eighty-Four by the brilliant Orwell – dystopian fiction was not my thing at the time.

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?

Asking for Trouble, by Elizabeth Young. I read it because it was meant to be the inspiration for The Wedding Date (Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney I think?), which I adore and have adored for years. It just wasn’t as punchy.

55. Favourite guilt-free, pleasure reading?

Chick-lit all the way. Apparently, being a media and communications student/vaguely literature student/writing student, I’m meant to be all high-brow and whatnot. Genre fic is brilliant though, and shouldn’t be discounted.

30 Days of Writing, Day 1

Name of your current project and back story of the name


This doesn't work for me, really. Titles are never a good thing for me to figure out, and they usually come far down the track. As I don't actually have a title for my story as of yet, let's go with some previous titles I've used for other stories and why I used them, then I'll say what my story's about (or will be about) so you can get an idea about it.

• Age 6: Two Little Girls
  We begin the creative process young. Two Little Girls was, as expected, about two little girls who went on adventures. These adventures were things like trips to the zoo and whatnot - things kids get excited about in Sydney - and were carefully handwritten with accompanying drawings. My best friend at the time, Alyssa, wrote these with me. 
• Age 13: Pretty much any title involving Simple Plan/The Used/Good Charlotte/Blink 182 lyrics
  Oh, to be thirteen again. I had black hair, black clothes, a bleak life outlook and terrible taste in music. (My taste is still terrible, according to all of my friends, but I maintain Aqua is brilliant music to listen to when doing assignments. The Swedish get pop dance stuff right. Or are they Danish?) Anyway, these were mostly terrible fanfics where my main character, a thinly-veiled version of myself, would have shenanigans of some description with these bands. I am truly thankful I never discovered Fanfiction.net, otherwise I'd have a lot of explaining to do.
• Age 16: Vivir Con Miedo, Es Como Vivir A Medias
  If anyone's familiar with Australian cinema, you'll know that's a Strictly Ballroom reference. I wrote this when I was in the throes of staying at home (woo panic attacks) and I basically was watching all the Baz Luhrmann, all the time. This story was an appropriation I had to do for Extension English - we had to appropriate Frankenstein. If you feel like reading the story, it lives here. I look at my old short stories and wonder where my skill in writing creepy stories went.
• Age 17: Exotopy OR A Season Called Home
  I chose Exotopy, my tutor chose A Season Called Home. Exotopy was an interesting word I stumbled upon when researching this novella. The word literally means outsidedness. According to this website, it's also used to describe when an author 'speaks' the authentic voices of characters outside their own. This was probably my most deliberate title choice. The characters were migrants, as I've been focusing on for three years now, and for two of them, they existed by assuming identities. For Fernanda, she wanted to be a part of her family and so allowed herself to become Spanish over Australian. For Cristobal, it was the opposite. For Santiago, the outsider feeling was the dominant feeling. My tutor added the very corny Season Called Home because Extension 2 English is stupid. I had to incorporate Romanticism into it (why, why didn't I get to study life writing?) and I focused on the seasons - each character was associated with a season. Unfortunately I had to put a really obtuse reference to that in the title, because my English teacher kept nagging, my tutor became exasperated, and I let her do as she saw fit.
• Age 18: Understanding
  Back to Chilean stories. This is the first attempt at my Novel and Memoir story, except it's a short story. The title was so chosen because the second last line was something like, "One day, mi vida, you'll understand." I'll go into more detail when I explain my novel.
• Age 20: About the Toes
  A memoir piece relating to my father's toes. I went with a Sedarisy angle, and Sedaris uses quirky titles for his pieces. Okay, that's a lie. I literally couldn't think of anything else, and an hour before I submitted the assignment I tacked the title on, printed it off, and fled to the train.

Now, the novel.
Basically this novel is an extension of Understanding. It may have the same title when I get around to it, who knows. It'll revolve around Carmen, age 19, her mother's best friend, whose name escapes me (it's in my room somewhere) and this woman's son, Cristian. Rather than doing the whole woo teen love angle (I'm going to slightly cover that, if I can make it realistic), I'm going to focus more on the relationship between Carmen and her mother's friend. Carmen is basically an outsider, and I enjoy writing these ones. I found my closest relationships outside of my immediate family (such as for much of my teenager years, my grandfather was my surrogate father - due to my insanity, not my father's - and is now the person I love more than anyone in the world. He, too, was the black sheep in our family), and I find it interesting to explore the relationships that aren't typical. The woman and Carmen are similar, but different, but understanding life in the confines of a certain culture is the outcome.

So there you have it. I've also pretty much done an assignment in here - had to write a pitch for Novel and Memoir. Polish the last paragraph up and I'm done!
Muchas gracias, interwebs! 

[Insert witty title here]

I'm in Brisbane until... probably Thursday! Maybe tomorrow, if I feel like changing my bus ticket. Probably won't happen as I am very lazy, but these things happen. I've been up here writing for Discerning Bride again, and today I went on a photoshoot.
"These things get sort of boring, don't they?" the stylist said sympathetically to me as I clutched 6 red balloons in one hand and a plastic bag in the other.
But for my very first shoot, I found it brilliant. It was beautiful. The dresses were amazing, the location divine. The dresses were designed by Wendy Makin - who is absolutely lovely - and were shot at Enoteca in Woolloongabba. Enoteca is in my favourite building ever, the Moreton Rubber building, so it was an added bonus.

When I arrived here on Sunday, I felt bleak. I didn't really want to be up here. Maybe it was stress over a new job the next day, maybe it wasn't. I felt homesick, and I desperately wanted to curl my arms around Tuscany's neck and breathe in her doggy smell (as nauseating as it can be at times). Though, as I curled up on a bus seat on the way back from the Gabba, I felt it again. The feeling that this city has beauty, and that I do love it. I don't think it'll be my home forever (at least while I'm alive), but it will for 2 years more.

I've gotten in a few shopping trips - of course - and I snuck in a trip to Koorong as I left the shoot. (My boss, who dropped me off there, also turned out to be a Christian. Things like that amaze me, just considering how God's got it all sorted.) In lieu of any sort of review, I'll post up my purchases.

This is because while I know a variety of words in Spanish, I suck at stringing them together in a coherent way. According to my grandfather, I would be embraced by Chileans everywhere, because they face the same issue and welcome the gringos who cannot speak to save their lives.
I can't help but think that if I rocked up to an interview in any Spanish-speaking country with my currently level of fluency, I would be laughed out the door.

While I love Nicholas Sparks, I must say that I have become less enamoured with him since reading A Walk to Remember.
This isn't because I disliked that book - it's because I loved it so completely and fully that anything he's written before or after has paled in comparison. The love isn't as perfect as Jamie and Landon's, and that makes me sad.
On the whole, I did like this book. It was a good read and a nice way to end the day.

I had no real purpose in buying this book - that is to say, I didn't intentionally look for it. But I feel it's what I need. I find I get myself into better habits of reading my Bible when I'm in studies and whatnot, and as I have felt a bit distanced from God, I want to change that. Immediately. This book looked interesting and useful, so I'll see how we do.

I bought this for similar reasons to the previous book, except I actually went to Koorong with the intention of buying it. I signed up for an online Bible study with Melissa Taylor, and this is the book they're studying from.

It's in week 5 and I've just bought it now. Bad Tash is bad? Yes. But Bad Tash will catch up!

I can't help but notice I've bought books with a very orange theme. 

Regardless, can we all whoop because in four days there's a new Coldplay album yes yes? I think there should be whooping all over this place.

Tomorrow I have the day at home/Chris's place, depending on what I do. The highs of freelancing - I can work at home, and watch Dr Who (of which I have recently acquired all 6 seasons, or what there is of it so far).

Anyway, I'll get back to normal scheduling soon. Goodnight - or morning, if you're in the Welshie land.

30 Days of Books, Complete List

UPDATE: I have finally, at long flipping last, finished this meme.
All the links are there, and you know what? I'm going to be generous. Titles are here as well.
To neatly scroll through all the posts with the 30 Days tag, click here.

So I figured that I should probably post an entire list, on the off chance that someone decides they want to do this challenge as well.
Also, credit where credit is due (can't remember if I've mentioned this blog): I found this challenge on Subtle_Sarcasm's LJ.
Bold text is what I've completed, with links included.

Day 01 - Best book you read last year: How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff.
Day 02 - A book that you've read more than 3 times: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, JK Rowling.
Day 03 - Your favorite series: Only in Gooding!, Cathy Marie Hake.
Day 04 - Favorite book of your favorite series: Fancy Pants, Cathy Marie Hake. 
Day 05 - A book that makes you happy: The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, Pablo Neruda.
Day 06 - A book that makes you sad: Atonement, Ian McEwan.
Day 07 - Most underrated book: Agent Angels Series, Annie Dalton.
Day 08 - Most overrated book: Twilight Series, Stephenie Meyer.
Day 09 - A book you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving: The Godfather, Mario Puzo.
Day 10 - Favorite classic book: Animal Farm, George Orwell.
Day 11 - A book you hated: An Open Swimmer, Tim Winton.
Day 12 - A book you used to love but don't anymore: Nil, because I am a bit of a cheat.
Day 13 - Your favorite writer: Melina Marchetta.
Day 14 - Favorite book from your favorite writer: Saving Francesca, Melina Marchetta. 
Day 15 - Favorite male character: Remus Lupin (Harry Potter Series, JK Rowling).
Day 16 - Favorite female character: Proverbs 31 Woman (The Bible).
Day 17 - Favorite quote from your favorite book: Lives in the Saving Francesca post.
Day 18 - A book that disappointed you: The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas.
Day 19 - Favorite book turned into a movie: The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks.
Day 20 - Favorite romance book: A Walk to Remember, Nicholas Sparks.
Day 21 - Favorite book from your childhood: Bananas in Pyjamas series, Katrina van Gendt.
Day 22 - Favorite book you own: 

• Long Way Round, Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman
• The Big Picture, Sydney Morning Herald
• Bill's Sydney Food, Bill Granger
• Liquid Desire, National Gallery of Victoria
• Every Young Woman's Battle, Shannon Ethridge
• 31 Girl, Mary Simpson
• Bible
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
• Finding Cassie Crazy, Jaclyn Moriarty
• Seasons of the Heart, Janette Oke
• Shopaholic Series, Sophie Kinsella

Day 23 - A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven't: Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy & The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas.
Day 24 - A book that you wish more people would've read: The House of the Scorpion, Nancy Farmer.
Day 25 - A character who you can relate to the most: Josephine Alibrandi (Looking for Alibrandi, Melina Marchetta).
Day 26 - A book that changed your opinion about something: The Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer.
Day 27 - The most surprising plot twist or ending: Petunia writing to Hogwarts (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling).
Day 28 - Favorite title: The Shadow of the Wind/La Sombra del Viento, Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
Day 29 - A book everyone hated but you liked: The Crucible, Arthur Miller.
Day 30 - Your favorite book of all time: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen & The Bride Quartet, Nora Roberts.


I'll keep linking as I go along, in an unusual sense of being organised and whatnot.
G'night, todos!

Review of Sisterhood Everlasting, Ann Brashares.

**Spoilers lurk in this entire post. Just in case you're not a fan of them.**


In case you'd thought I'd forgotten about books, fear not! I have been momentarily distracted by sexist freakshows, stunning wedding dresses and the whole why-must-men-be-so-hard-to-understand.
Can't help really thinking these are related, however distantly.
Anyway, back to a book post. 


High school was a massive pain in the butt. Rather than being shuttled off to the same school as my friends, I was shoved off to a private school that was opposite a beach.

Sharpes Beach, Skennars Head. Along this highway, the surfie
kids on the bus would all simultaneously turn to stare at the waves,
either in horror or in ecstasy. 

I think that was about the plus of my high school years, until every single resident of every city in the country decided to move around the school and block off any view I had out the window during Maths.

Anyway, I couldn't spend all day in a second-storey classroom, gazing at the ocean despondently and wishing I was looking at the llamas instead which were reportedly a fixture at Alstonville High. For one, the teachers glared at anyone left hovering inside the mustard-yellow rooms (clearly designed to send students to early insanity), and also, it would have cemented my position as social outcast.

So I chose the next most likely route to social leprosy - I spent my lunchtimes in the library. 

The library was a thing of solace in the outer regions of purgatory - which high school most certainly was; I missed the freedom of primary school, and I just wanted to get out and flee to the comforts of university - and I relished the time spent there. In year 7, it was squashed into the two old drama classrooms at the bottom of C Block (a 'soothing' - read, depressing - blue). Later it moved into a designated library, and that place was heaven.

I became pretty good pals with the librarian, Gloria. Gloria was brilliant, having noticed my penchant for borrowing a book, and returning it the next day with a fairly solid review. However, she also noticed that I tended to, in my nostalgia for primary school, stuck to the novels I'd discovered there. She made me a proposition.

"Read this book," she said, sliding a novel across the counter towards me, "and you can borrow three books."

The book she gave me?

Obviously, it's a new release cover, but
I do like this pretty version.

At this stage, I only slightly trusted Gloria. I didn't trust her enough to fully submit to the books she gave me, but enough that I'd take the book in order to borrow three.

(Also, she threatened that she'd not allow me to borrow books I'd read already.)

And. I. Loved. It.

Yeah, unnecessary punctuation, but you get it.

Enough about my high school experiences and Gloria. We'll fast-forward six years to Friday July 1, 2011.

I went into work and sitting next to our new-release table was a glorious new stand. I didn't really pay it much mind as I saw the four bottom titles. I'd already read the Sisterhood books and I could practically recite them, but it was handy; now, I could refer them to customers.

Yet on the Saturday, I noticed the fifth novel on the stand, bought it on the Sunday, and devoured it in an afternoon.

If you've read the Sisterhood novels, it goes without saying - you must read this book.

If you've not read the Sisterhood novels - you must read this book.

(If someone has read it without reading the first four, is it confusing?)

As most teen novels do, Sisterhood Everlasting deals with the themes of friendship, love, loss and family. However, what's interesting is that it's ten years later. The characters are firmly ensconced in adult lives, and those themes are nicely translated without turning into vapid chick-lit (see: Louise Bagshawe, Venus Envy, avoid if you can). The girls and their partners have moved away from each other, and are facing life without each other - and, more importantly, without the ritual of the pants to remind them of the friendship. Lena, half-heartedly seeing a nondescript sandwich maker, lives in Providence and teaches at RISD. Carmen has become a successful actress in New York, engaged to Jones (universally hated). Bridget and Eric are in San Francisco, where Bridget temps - still the free spirit - and Eric is a lawyer. Tibby and Brian have moved to Australia, for Brian's gaming work. 

Yet out of the blue, letters arrive for Lena, Bridget and Carmen. Tibby has organised a trip to Santorini (the island where Lena's grandparents used to live), and the three meet her there.

Tibby suddenly dies, drowning in the Caldera. And afterwards, as the girls have to deal with this in their own ways, the novel charts what happens when they're apart.

It's a fantastic read, and I very much enjoyed stepping back into these characters' lives. Brashares knows these characters inside-out, and this was far better than her other efforts. (My Name Is Memory appears to be completely stolen from Lauren Kate's Fallen; correct me if I'm wrong, but the covers/synopses/names seem eerily alike. Three Willows was a bad follow-up to the awesomeness of the Sisterhood.) I know that many people are horrified at the concept of authors continually revisiting characters, but I think this was a perfect and completely necessary addition to the series. I'm a sucker for the Lena-Kostos romance, and it thankfully resurfaces and reaches a delightfully satisfying conclusion. (The fourth novel didn't wrap it up at all and this angered me a teeny tiny little bit. Okay, maybe a lot.) And it's nice to see the characters maturing and growing, while still retaining their essential personalities. Bridget is still the free-wheeling, vaguely immature, je ne sais quoi Bridget that we were introduced to in books 1-4, but she's forced to grow up and forced to stop running from her problems. Carmen is still as dramatic as ever - her scene on the train with Roberto and his kids made me naww all over the place. Lena, still as shy as ever and as insecure of her relationship with Kostos, though I admit I was very surprised to see that she was the one teaching. 

What did irritate me was Eric's personality - really, the entire Bridget-Eric relationship. Eric was painted as a completely passive character, contrary to the Eric we were introduced to in the first novel. Actually, it wasn't passiveness. He treated Bridget with the weariness of a father with a toddler. And Bridget, for the majority of this novel, acted like a child in a very unappealing way for someone who was meant to be 28/29. I suppose it suited when she was eighteen, but not now. It did amuse me when she went out to Australia, how Brian noted that toddler Bailey (Tibby and Brian's daughter) and nearly-thirty Bridget were very alike. Oh Brian, how you hit that nail on the head. 

Yet how Bridget just upped and left, cheated on Eric, failed to tell him about the pregnancy until 20 weeks in and expected him to be all howdy-do about it? Painful. Just... so very painful. Eric gave her $10,000, and she says 'sayonara' and flees across the world with nary a word? 

Eric, maybe you're stronger than I am, and maybe you're old before your time, having looked after Toddler Bridget for too long. But I'd be donning my Goodbye Hat and leaving long before it got to the $10,000 stage.

Lena and Kostos finally getting together made me squirm with glee. 

"Hey," he said. "It's someday." He said the last word in Greek.

Overall, I'd give this book 4 stars. My irritation with Bridget made me want to attack her with a copy of the novel, and shout at her "YOU ARE NEARLY THIRTY, WOMAN, STOP BEING SO DARN FLIGHTY AND IRRESPONSIBLE". I know, I know. Homage to Marly and how she couldn't cope yet Bridget now can. WHAT. EVER.
Everything else in the novel? Perfection. Go pick it up somewhere (support a local bookstore, because stupid Amazon bought out Book Depository and my sadpandaface is firmly on). I got mine for $25; RRP is $29.99.
You'll adore it.
I hope.

I'll get back to the thirty days of books tomorrow, kay?
Kay.
I've given up le Fachebook for a month and as a result, I'm mainly tweeting from my phone. First time in forever I've hooked up the phone to the laptop. 

#Weekendreads

In case you're not aware - though the widget on the side would probably be a big hint - I'm on Twitter.

You should come follow me because I'll tweet something awesome once in a blue moon, and those are pretty good odds.

On Twitter, I follow a whole bunch of writery people. Occasionally, these writery people follow me back. Can we have a moment to squeal over John Birmingham following me on Twitter? Can we please?
Anyway, that's... not my point. My point is the following tweet.

When this tweet travelled into my feed, I got pretty excited. No words give me more excitement than 'weekend' and 'reads'; both distinctly imply not having to work, and as I work in a deli as my main mode of sourcing tehmonehs, I feel glee when weekends arise.

But underneath the excitement, a small voice was trying to get my attention.

Weekend reads, Tash? Actually planning what book you'll read? You?

Of course, I replied with some variation of "Hush now, child, Mummy's tweeting."

But you never plan what you're going to read. You have books all over the house, lying face down in probable pain. And more often than not, you rudely ignore those books and pick up other ones.

I silenced the voice with a glare, and clicked on the reply link.

Mental blank.

Naturally.

Penguin, I cannot reply to your tweet succinctly. So, for an appropriately bookish Friday, I have decided to hunt out all the books I currently have lying around my house, ready to be picked up and flicked through at random.

The Undomestic Goddess, Sophie Kinsella.

Kitchen, Marie Claire.

Serendipity, Cathy Marie Hake.

The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, edited by Ilan Stavans.

Short Stories, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Princess Diaries: To The Nines, Meg Cabot.

The Thorn, Beverly Lewis.

Shopaholic and Baby, Sophie Kinsella.

And, because the weather around here is so darn depressing, DVDs are in order.

Scrubs, Season 5.

Wimbledon.

Emma, BBC Version 2009.

Offspring, Season 1.

IT Crowd, Season 2.

Mona Lisa Smile.

All in all, Penguin, it'll be a lazy weekend for me, and I'll enjoy it thoroughly.