Last week I wrote about hitting the “Reading Wall.”  I think that I’ve climbed over it and am back on a normal reading pace.  However, I remember certain months that I just read one great book after another and I haven’t had that feeling about the books that I’ve been reading lately.  Because I’m over the wall and reading at a good pace again, does that mean that I’m enjoying it?  I’m not sure.  I haven’t had a 9 out of 10 or 10 out of 10 in a while.  Oh where, oh where are my LOVE-LOVE-LOVE books?

I have a stack of books that I’ve purchased that I’m hesitant to start reading.  I should give my review books my priority first, right?  I’m wondering if I pick up a “purchase” if it’ll be a 10 out of 10.  Do I rate books higher when I am excited about reading it before I crack it open?  Do I rate books higher if I’ve heard so much about them and then subsequently purchase them?  In my heart, I don’t think so because there have been some fantastic books that I’ve won or gotten as an ARC that I’ve just loved.  So… is it just by chance that I’m reading a lot of 7 out of 10’s lately?  Or, is it my mood?  I’d hate to think that my mood is making me enjoy my reading less.  Even more so, this feeling of questioning myself just sucks!

I got some great feedback from fellow bloggers on my “Reading Wall.”  I’m going to slow down, smell the roses, and really try to be open minded to the next book I crack open!  Yes, that’s the next goal now that I am over the wall!

This Week’s Reads

This week, I reviewed: 

In My Mailbox for Review

I received A Year of Cats and Dogs by Margaret Hawkins, The Last Days of The Lacuna Cabal by Sean Dixon,  and This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper.

Contests 

You CHICKLIT FANS… the CONTEST has a few more days.  You still have a chance to enter!

Reading Challenges 

On . Kaye’s 100+ Reading Challenge…  I’m at 94 books read.  Therefore, my statistical update for this challenge is that I’m 94% completed with 53.22% of the year completed.  This puts me ahead of schedule by 40.77%.   I really am almost there!  Only 6 more books to go.  I can do that by the end of summer, no problem.  This will be the biggest challenge I’ve ever completed!  Can we say, “Snoopy Dance?”

ANM Got an Award!

Have you visited Bloody Bad Book Blog?   I’ve been a follower/reader for many months now and I always enjoy Trin’s blog.  First of all, she’s got all kind of mad talent with web design and she’s always got something new and fun to share on her blog.  (I appreciate that because I know how hard it is doing it all).  Just look at her rating symbols (# out of 10)… super cool.  Second, she’s just got such an organized blog.  I can always find what I’m looking for with ease.  I really like what she did with her awards in her sidebar (it’s groovy… check it out).    Anyway, Trin gave me an award!   And, this weekend was the perfect weekend to give it to me for many reasons…. I was so stoked!

Here’s the award:

“The Humane Award is to honor certain bloggers that are kindhearted individuals. They regularly take part in my blog and always leave the sweetest comments. If it wasn’t for them, my site would just be an ordinary book review blog. Their blogs are also amazing and are tastefully done on a daily basis. This award is to thank them for their growing friendships through the blog world.”

 So, I am supposed to pass this onto an unknown amount of other bloggers.  Trin chose 6, so 6 it is for me as well.    Who I love love love and am giving this award to are:

1.  
   1. Marie at The Burton Review.  Thanks to the Bloggisiesta thing that Natasha Maw hosted earlier in the year, I would have never have gotten a new Blogging Buddy!  Marie mentioned that she didn’t grab one one of those, so I volunteered.  What I love about Marie’s blog?  She’s got it set up all green, “Irishy,” and super organized.  She provides honest reviews that are cleverly written.  She’s a beautiful person inside and out and she’s a great mom!
   2. Lenore of Presenting Lenore.  Now, I’m sure many of you are regular readers of hers.  I’m totally addicted to Emmy and Finn, her two beautiful “kittehs.”  She’s got an amazing blog which hosts A+ writing and super reviews.   No matter how popular her blog is, she takes time for her readers and that means so much! 
   3. Cathy of Kittling: Books.  Cathy has grown so much as a blogger in the past year!  She commits to the blogging community by dedicating a weekly posts to other bloggers.  It’s called Scene of the Blog.  She h0sts pictures of fellow book blogger’s desks so we can envision where our friends sit and write to us.  She’s also got my favorite weekly meme Friday Feud.  It’s just like the gameshow where you have to name a popular answer that nobody else has said before you.  I love playing that one!  Anyhow, she’s as kind as she is talented and is much deserved of this award.
   4. Mishel of Mis(h)takes.   I’m a regular reader of this book blog.  There is just something about this blog that resonates with me.  Simply, I just enjoy it!  She participated in most of the memes and is active in the blogging community.  She’s always got a new post to read and the effort she puts into her blog is super evident! 
   5. Florinda of 3 R’s.  Most of you know Florinda.  Her very popular blog always has good stuff to read.  My favorite post of hers is on Saturdays when she hosts her Weekend Review.  She links to all kinds of neat articles she’s read during the past week.  But, the way she does it… it just takes you on an adventure.  Florinda is just as kind in person as she is on her blog.  She’s got an awesome doggie and is an animal lover (which I love love love!).
   6. Alyce of At Home With Books.   Alyce knows that she’s just about my favorite blogger out there!  I feel a friendship with her that is irreversible!  I never have to think twice about what I say to her because I know that she accepts me for who I am (craziness and all!).  She’s always there for her fellow bloggers and has always been there for me!  Her blog is totally awesome and I love her posts with her husband and boys.  They are cute little ones!  Oh, and she’s a musician!  Gotta love a musician!

Thank you, Trin!  Really… thanks!

On TV 

The Bachelorette 

Another week with a great episode on ABC!  I loved this show nearly as much as last week’s.  This upcoming week she’s taking them to Maui and narrowing it down to 3 guys. I really enjoy writing these reviews and absolutely LOVE your comments even more!  If you’ve missed this week’s review, you can check out my wrap-up from this week.

At Home 

Since I posted my Sunday Salon post early last week (i.e. prior to July 4th), I didn’t get to post any 4th of July pics.  Here are a couple of the kids at the parade.

At The 4th of July Parade: Colie is on the right in the hat

DeeDee is on the right (pink shirt) and Lisa's Munchkin is in green shirt

My daughters were more-than-hormonal on the 4th and it took Colie the better part of the day to snap out of it.  I want to know when they will go back to their normal selves, please!  We went swimming and played until midnight andthey had a good time.  My favorite part of the day was hangin’ with my GIRL LISA and talking all kinds of gossip.  She’s so easy to talk to!  I’m lucky to have her as a friend!

Other than the 4th… I’ve had some personal stuff going on this week that just ate me up, ALIVE!  So, I don’t have any fun stories to report.  I did haul my butt into the gym and wrote a post about it on Friday.

I’ve been so sad all week because I learned that my change in website address has caused me to be lost on Google Reader and Blogger.  Missing my “peeps” out there in Blogger Land, I went through my blog roll and reader and visited all of my favorite sites to let them know that I’m not dead.  If I missed you and you’re catching this only via The Sunday Salon Feed, you can see the details on how to fix the links/feed here:  http://anovelmenagerie.com/2009/06/30/blogging-update/.  The good news was that I realized that there are several bloggers that I am following through Blogger/Google Reader that weren’t on my blog roll.  I’ve since updated and added y’all.  If I missed you, please email me so I can get you on there.  (It’s good to be linked on other sites as it increases your SEO!  OH, yes it is!)

This week was my 2nd edition of my new feature.. The Score… a weekly post about a musical artist and song that I appreciate.  This week was The Platters’ “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.”  I’m a sucker for classics!  This upcoming week I have a COOL surprise and will be giving away a CD!

And, for the movie lovers, this week’s Monday’s Movie was Last Chance Harvey.  I have NO IDEA what I will post for Monday… but, I’ll figure something out. 

Oh, and one last thing… I got highlighted on Cathy’s Scene of the Blog this week.  I really like her blog and read it regularly.  You can check it out HERE.

As always, my thanks to all of you for reading not only this post, but the others as well.   Your readership means the world to me!  AND, your comments are invaluable to me!

Author:       Zoey Dean

Publisher:    Grand Central/Hachette

ISBN:          978-0-446-69719-4

Website:      HERE

Type:         Fiction:ChickLit/YA

Pages:        288 Trade Paperback

Release:      July 23, 2009

Purchase:    $10.28 @ Amazon.com (HERE)

The Story

“Twenty-four-year old Taylor Henning has just landed her dream job as an assistant at a major movie studio. But when her catty coworkers trick her into almost getting fired, she realizes that the old saying “Hollywood is like school with money” just may be true. The thing is, Taylor wasn’t exactly a social butterfly in high school-how is she supposed to do any better the second time around?

That’s when she meets her boss’s popular sixteen-year-old daughter Quinn, and has an epiphany: maybe this teenager can teach her how to use her queen bee tactics to succeed in the Hollywood popularity contest. Quinn comes up with a plan to teach Taylor one lesson a week-everything from “Fake it ’til you make it” to “It’s *never* your fault”–and soon Taylor finds herself winning the war against rival assistant Kylie. Until, that is, she’s directed to steal Kylie’s boyfriend, and something happens that’s not in the game plan: Taylor falls for the guy. Now she must do the impossible– harness her inner mean girl while staying true to herself.”

(Excerpt is from www.hachette.com)

The Review  

Apparently, Zoey Dean is quite a popular writer.  She is the author of Privileged the popular A-List series, which I have not had the pleasure of reading.  Despite this author’s popularity, I was unable to find a picture of the author to include in my post… I think this is only the second time that I’ve run into that dilemma.  So, to the popular, yet elusive Zoey Dean… writer of YA ChickLit… here’s my review…

Now, I’m not going to go completely crazy, gushing about how fantastic this book is.  But, and this is a BIG BUT, I really did enjoy reading it.  I zipped through it in a couple of hours and immersed myself in this tale of popularity and heartache in Hollywood. (*what else?*)  I found this Young Adult book a fun read… but, I don’t think it’s quite appropriate for teenagers.  Rather, I’d see this as a good novel for college-age gals and up. 

Nothing stunning or brain-twisting here, folks.  The plot was predictable and the heroine makes the typical love mistakes.  But, I need a fun escape in my summer reading schedule.  Too many heavy books make Sheri a very cranky girl!

On Sher’s “Out of Ten Scale:” 

Admittedly, I’m a bit older than the “target audience” for this book.  Despite that, I had my girly afternoon lost in a story of mean co-workers, slimy guys, funky roommates, and token gay boyfriends.  It was.. simply.. fun.  This book gets my rating, genre: Fiction:ChickLit/YA, a 7 OUT OF 10.  If you are spending the day at the pool… or if you’ve just read too many heavy books… grab this read and get gossipy for a couple of hours! 

My heartfelt thanks to Miriam and Hachette for this fun read. 

In great hopes that my girlfriend doesn’t read this article, I have to share that I am so annoyed and completely disgusted at this guy at the gym. Let me tell you why and what it has to do with my girlfriend… let’s call her “Jane.”

Jane and I have been friends for 3 years, give or take a few months.  She has a daughter that is the same age as the twins who is just all kinds of spunky and cool.  We’ve done school events, sports teams, and girl scouts together.  Our kids now go to different schools and we don’t run into each other as much as we used to. 

For the record, please know that Jane is GORGEOUS.  She’s the “hottest” friend I have.  She is a runner and has this tremendous body.  But, let me tell you… she works really hard on it.  She is dedicated to her diet and her exercise.  She looks absolutely fantastic… blonde, tan, nice rack, and a gorgeous face to match it all.  So, whenever I go out with Jane, she gets a ton of male attention.  They can’t help it.  After all, they are the weaker species and they just can’t help that auto-response, neck twisting reaction they get in the presence of a smokin’ hot babe.  I pity those poor boys… having no control over their bodies and all.

99% of the time, I really don’t mind being in her shadow, although I do have periodic flashbacks of when I was the hot blonde bombshell in my 20’s and how I used to be able to turn heads.  As I face my 40’s, I feel somewhat comfortable with my fading looks, but I do miss my body.  There is nobody but myself who can change that and I have nobody to blame but myself for not maintaining that body.  Well, except for my thyroid. (*Hello? Thyroid, are you reading this?  Wake up!  Kick in!*)

So, back to Jane.  When she went through a separation with her husband and the beginnings of her divorce, we spent a good amount of time together.  She was newly single and we could hang out with the kids as a group of girls.  It was during this time that she and I really connected.  She wasn’t just a pretty face and a set of long legs.  She was a really good mom, funny, smart, and a great conversationalist.  We did that female bonding thing and I am glad to call her my friend, especially when she makes her famous margaritas. 

Jane met the guy of her dreams and fell in love.  I am happy for her, but soon I guess I grew tired of being the 3rd wheel.  They started to meld families and we started spending less time together.  Let me tell you that I am completely okay with this and I totally get what falling in love does to your social schedule.  Since then, we’ve been really bad about getting together. She called me the other day with a last minute invite to meet her at the gym.  I told her, “Sure!” and met her there within the hour.  The invite was just the “push” I needed for the day. (*Take that, stomach!*) 

As she ran like a million miles on the treadmill next to me, I huffed and puffed my way through 2.5 miles in 45 minutes.  She suggested that we work out our arms thereafter.  I’m dripping wet and looking less than fresh and she looks like she’s… well… glowing, actually!  (*maybe if I steal her DNA and implant it in me?*)  We head over to the benches by the free weights AKA “Testerone Land.”  Within 10 minutes of being there, this guy comes up and starts working out next to us.  She knows him.  It never fails… every time we are at the gym together, that man magically appears and is magnetically connected to her… whoosh… he slides across the floor and lands next to her.  With her shiny diamond engagement ring, she smiles and is always polite in response to his small talk.  Despite the fact that she’s taken, he is constantly flirting with her.  This day in particular, he remarks, “Jane, now what did you do to those sexy legs of yours?”  (Note: she scraped her shin in the pool).  He barrages her with continuous comments about how she’s “A 12, not a 10.”   Loving her fiance, she always makes the perfect reply about looking good for her man, gently reminding him that she’s taken.  But, he’s never ending in his quest and won’t give up.

Now, here’s the thing that kills me.  I’ve been introduced to him on multiple occasions.  I swear to you that every time we run into him, he acts like I am not there!  If I’m talking to her, he interrupts me and takes over the conversation, completely shutting me out.  Poof!  He’s made me invisible and therefore doesn’t need to include me in the conversation.  RUDE!  I send the mental message, “Dude, she does not want you, give up your pipe dreams and stop interrupting us!”  But, no… he persists… he cannot hear the invisible woman.  Jane then mentions that her car was acting up and he rushes across the gym floor to bring her a mechanic to meet her who will look at her car for free.  He’s unstoppable in his pursuit.

You know, it’s bad enough that I have such unbearable self-doubts about my looks and my curves.  But, as this man treats me like the completely-forgettable-invisible-woman-who-doesn’t-even-deserve-the-courtesy-of-a-hello, it just sends my insecurities into hyper-drive.  I mean, what is wrong with this guy?  Why do I even let this DUDE get to me?  I start my full-blown assault of mental daggers.  AHA!  YAH!  Take that! And, that!

Just when all hope is gone and the daggers have yet to destroy him, he turns to me and tells me that he hasn’t seen me in the gym in a long while.  Then, he asks me how I’ve been.   What?  Huh?  Who me?  Why yes… yes…. he is speaking to me.  Through the shock, I being to melt my mean exterior.  Well, now that he is talking to me, he can’t be a complete dog after all.  Hmmm…. perhaps a second chance should be given?  Now, I’m not saying he doesn’t need to sharpen his social skills because he does need to learn to be polite to all of the ladies… but, he’s not as bad as I thought after all.  It just takes a while for the male species to notice the invisible women.  (*are my eyes still green?*)

All of this makes me wonder… for all of the thoughts that I have about being ignored or overlooked, I wonder if Jane has thoughts running through her mind about being pestered when she just wants to enjoy her “girl time” or “alone time.”  Does she sit there while doing the arm curls and throw her mental daggers at gym guy, too?  Like… does she think, “Dude, just blow off!” ???  As much as I am haunted by my insecurities about my fat rolls, age spots and acne… I wonder… does she have equivalent thoughts?  Does she ever tire of being hounded by men?  Or, does it only make her day better when she receives such positive male feedback?   Has she ever been an invisible woman?  And, if so, would she ever go back?

Welcome to “The Score,” A Novel Menagerie’s weekly music feature.  Each  Thursday, I will share an artist and a song that I favor.  Thereafter, the song will be available to you in my sidebar widget until the following week’s selection.

I welcome your suggestions for future artist spotlights.

Remember:  If you are reading this post via email or Google Reader, you will need to click over to the post to fully enjoy the song of the week!

This week, I am highlighting a group that I’ve loved since my daddy introduced me to the greatness that is the music of the 50’s… The Platters! 

My favorite song by The Platters is ”Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” although I completely love “Only You” and “The Great Pretender.”  One of my favorite movies is Always with Holly Hunter (”Dorinda”) and Richard Dryfus (”Pete”).  In the movie, there is a scene in which Pete buys Dorinda a beautiful white dress for her birthday.  All of the firemen in the bar wash up as quickly as possible so that they can have a chance to dance ”with the dress.”   ”Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” was their song and I can’t help thinking of the great romance of this movie when I hear this song.  

All movie memories aside, the simple lyrics of this song just strike a chord with me.   The lyrics to this song are timeless and I really enjoy the classic music and romantic vocals of this song.

Just press play in The Score Music Player and Enjoy! (I’ve included all three songs in case you’re in the mood…)

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

They asked me how I knew
My true love was true
Oh, I of course replied
Something here inside cannot be denied

They said someday you’ll find
All who love are blind
Oh, when your heart’s on fire
You must realize
Smoke gets in your eyes

So I chaffed them and I gaily laughed
To think they could doubt my love
Yet today my love has flown away
I am without my love

Now laughing friends deride
Tears I can not hide
Oh, so I smile and say
When a lovely flame dies
Smoke gets in your eyes
Smoke gets in your eyes 

 

 

 

I’ve Arrived On The Scene!

I’m totally thankful that Cathy chose A Novel Menagerie for The Scene of the Blog feature this week.  If you’d like to check out her post about A Novel Menagerie and my messy desk… then here is where you need to go!

My favorite post over at Kittling: Books is Friday Fued.  It’s just like the gameshow and I can’t wait to leave my comment.  She also has really cool art, polls, solid articles, and good stuff about books.  I’m a follower of Cathy’s and I really enjoy her blog. 

Thanks for checking it out!