The Proximidade Award!

Wendy (@ Wendy's Minding Spot) - Thanks so much Wendy! - was kind enough to pass this award (my first and only!) on to me. I'm still fairly new to the blogging community, and yet I've found it so welcoming.

This blog invests and believes in the Proximity - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award.

I have the honor, in turn, of passing it on to eight others. Here are some blogs I enjoy visiting and have found "exceedingly charming."


The Animal House - Adventures in Fostering - This one isn't a book blog, and it's very new - but certainly charming. =)
Carrie's YA Bookshelf
Crazy for Books
drey's library
J. Kaye's Book Blog
Love to Read
The Movieholic & Bibliophile's Blog
SciFiGuy.ca

Tuesday (3/24) Teaser

Hosted by: MizB (@ http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/)

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall to a random page.
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• Share the title of the book that you're getting your teaser from... That way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

Mine:

"She wanted a full week," I said, glossing over the fact that the week had been up the previous Friday and I'd had no luck getting in touch with Mrs. Thornhill, the calligrapher, over the weekend. Best not to upset Samantha until absolutely necessary.

From p. 114 of Murder with Peacocks (A Meg Langslow Mystery, 1) by Donna Andrews. Not sure how this is as a teaser (I really lucked out with last week's), but I followed the rules and there it is...

The Italian Lover

Title: The Italian Lover

Author: Robert Hellenga

Publisher: Back Bay Books (an imprint of Little, Brown and Company)

Print Date: February 2009

Copyright Date(s): 2007 (Reading Group Guide c2009)

ISBN: 9780316117654

Pages: 340 + Reading Group Guide (includes an interview with the author)

Series: Can be read as stand alone (I did). However, Margot Harrington's story is told in The Sixteen Pleasures and Woody's story can be found in The Fall of a Sparrow. Margot's father's story is told in Philosophy Made Simple.

BOOK DESCRIPTION (from back cover):

Margot Harrington is an American woman living in Italy whose memoir, The Sixteen Pleasures, about her discovery of a priceless masterwork of Renaissance erotica — and the misguided love affair it inspired — is finally, after twenty-five years, being made into a movie. Margot, with the help of her lover, Woody, has written a script that she thinks will validate her life. Of course, her script is not used, but never mind — happy endings are best for movies.

At the former convent in Florence where the movie — based on the memoir but now called The Italian Lover — is being shot, Margot enters into a drama she never imagined, where her ideas of home, love, art, and aging collide with the imperatives of commerce and the essential unknowability of other cultures and other people.

Comments:

I won this as a free copy (via Wendy and Hachette); it is my first review (on this blog).

The Italian Lover is an interesting novel. It portrays a variety of perspectives and looks at just what love, home, and life is all about. Following the journey and emotions of Margot and Woody, Miranda, Esther, Michael and his wife, Beryl... well, it wakes you up to how complicated love can be. Sometimes it's a flash of passion, sometimes it's all the memories shared with someone. Sometimes it means romance or home or just finding the meaning in your life. In the Reading Guide the interviewer brought up how at some point or another, all the major characters looked out from a high spot and what that meant... I have to admit, I wasn't that observant. But it does show how much this book can make you think.

Pros:

1. Interesting characters, setting, and story
2. Look at the production of a movie
3. Glipse of Italy and its culture

Cons:

1. Because it takes place in Italy, the naming of places, food, etc. means a lot of Italian is used in the story. Can make it more difficult to follow the story.
2. I really have difficulty believing its so much easier, simpler, and expected for Italian men to have affairs. And there are several affairs throughout the story.

My First... Tuesday Teaser!

Hosted by: MizB (@ http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/)

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall to a random page.
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• Share the title of the book that you're getting your teaser from... That way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

Mine:

You imagine, for example, that your refrigerator is a big rectangular head that's wearing a pair of sunglasses. Then when you start to look for your glasses, you'll associate them with this refrigerator head.

From The Italian Lover by Robert Hellenga.

For Fun - Lazy Person's Blog...

Dudes, I just totally realized I have not updated this since they invented sliced bread... You would not believe I spend all my time in front of a computer. Yo!

I am absorbed with discovering time doesn't stand still, watching the grass grow, just generally being a doormat to my cats, my day often feels wasted from sun-up to sun down and beyond.

I am looking at rectifying this. But who cares. I hope that one day you will see me writing more to you in the future. Seriously! Seriously?

Saw this on Wendy's blog (http://mindingspot.blogspot.com/) and had to try it. (Never-mind sleep.)

Made with the "Lazy Bloggers Post Generator". (I did change one word... can you find it?) Try yours today! And please comment with the link to your post. Laughs welcome...

What Kind of Reader Are You? Part 2

The questions to my answers can be found here: What Kind of Reader Are You? Part 1.

Sometimes I'll mentally list what books I need to read soon (within the next week or so), sometimes I'll decide while reading the current book that I want to read such and such book. And of course with series I have an idea of what I'll be reading soon.

I usually read one book at a time. Sometimes, I'll set one aside, read another, and then return to the first... if that counts as reading more than one.

I am a book hoarder and therefore, definitely have keepers. I don't understand people who don't re-read or keep at least some favorites on hand.

I usually finish the books I start. Sometimes I'll set them aside for a while and a few months later I'll restart and finish them. I do, rarely, not finish a book. Usually if it's school related or if it's very depressing. (I never finished A Thousand Splendid Suns, for instance.)

I do prefer to read series in order. If I can, I'll usually read them one after the other. For various reasons, this isn't always possible.

I'm an "average" reader, but I have trouble leaving a book before it's finished so I usually finish a book the same day I start reading it. I'll lose sleep to manage this time-wise.

I pick up a book whenever I have time available and usually, but not always, have a book on hand.

What Kind of Reader Are You? Part 1

Some common reader questions. My answers can be found at: What Kind of Reader Are You? Part 2.

Are you the type that plans what your reading ahead of time? Or are you more the spontaneous type?

Do you read more than one book at a time? If you do, are they all different genres and types?

Are you a hoarder, do you have keepers, or are you a one-time-only reader?

Do you finish every book you read, do you set aside books you just aren't getting into or enjoying, or will you only have a DNF (Did Not Finish) on rare occasion?

Do you read series books in order? Do you read series book one after the other? Or do you break them up? If you break them up - after how many and with what? A different author, a different genre....?

Are you a slow reader? Or fast? Or "average"?

Do you read a book in one sitting, or spread it out?

Do you plan when you'll read? Or pick up a book whenever you have time available? Do you always have a book on hand?