Tome Thursday: Petals on the River

Hello everyone!

So I normally go through books that aren't necessarily romantic in genre, or there's some romance in there somewhere but the prevalent message is something else (most notably, I'm currently burrowing through The Bourne Ultimatum, which is a rollercoaster if I've ever seen one!), and that's fine. I'm not one for the mushy, sappy things that happen in a lot of, say Amanda Quick's novels (although granted, I like at least two from that collection, oops). Most of my books are either based on historic facts (like, Genghis Khan or Julius Caesar facts), crime (think Tess Gerritsen or Agatha Christie), intelligence agencies (The Company, Vince Flynn, Stephen Coonts), etc.

But every once in a while, my brain starts screaming at me that I need to take a rest. So I either do it with fantasy novels (Tolkien anyone?), or I go to find some sort of romance story that's easy on the mind and not that long to get through. I'll admit, there are certain offers I read from that genre, but I think one of my favourites has to be Kathleen E. Woodiwiss ... because she has historical romance, not just romance in general.

Colour me surprised? I thought not. My choice of relaxation the last time was her novel titled 'Petals on the River'. (image not mine)

Talkie Tuesday: The Wedding Ringer

Hello everyone!

This past weekend I got a call from my best friend and she basically suggested a trip to the movies, and then we narrowed our selections down to two: The Imitation Game, and The Wedding Ringer. Turns out, neither one of us was really feeling the dramatic aspect of the first one, even though I still have serious plans to see it at some point, but we were definitely in for some good old-fashioned comedic relief.

Now, I don't usually go for comedy, myself; in fact, there are only a handful of funny movies I can honestly stomach and een they tend to have a whole lot of other genres barging along with them. BUT, that being said, I was all 'Why not?' when the suggestion fell, and so we packed ourselves into a car, drove one town over, and sat down for at least an hour and a half of pure, American movie comedy.

Tome Thursday: Broken Sky

Hello everyone!

It's Thursday again, so that means another ramble on books from my end. Initially, I wanted very much to write a blog post about Tess Gerritsen and her fabulous thriller/medical novels about female duo Rizzoli and Isles, but then I visited my local bookstore here in town and accidentally stumbled over books that I hadn't seen in a long, long time. Not since grade school, actually.

Chris Wooding's 'Broken Sky' is something you need to really put your back into if you want to find any decent results on the internet, because there's apparently a movie of the same name and so uncle Google gets all confused half the time, but if you're persistent enoug, you can get it done. When I saw the books on the shelf, I couldn't believe my eyes, since it's been at least fifteen years since their original publication, and to top it all off, the nine segments were printed in three volumes.

A must-have? I think so!

Talkie Tuesday: A Princess for Christmas

Hello everyone!

So last week, if anyone is actually reading this, I talked about Outlander, and the stars that have claimed our attention there as Jamie Fraser and Claire Beauchamp. What I didn't mention was that I'd had this strong feeling that I had already seen Sam Heughan before, somewhere, only I couldn't remember where that was! That's an irritating thing which sometimes happen to me: I see a celebrity in a show or a movie, and I'm sure I've seen them before, but my memory doesn't supply any additional information until after I've poked it a bit.

Which means I was a little bit embarrassed after I hunted over the world wide web to figure out just where I'd seen Sam before, and realized I had watched a very family-oriented, adorable Christmas movie a while ago, titled A Princess for Christmas, in which Sam plays the prince.

Cue face-palm.

So, in honour of our Highlander, I sat down to rewatch the movie!

Tome Thursday: Hercule Poirot

Hello everyone!

Okay, so, there is no one book titled 'Hercule Poirot'. But. There is a full SERIES of them, written by the brilliant Agatha Christie, and all of them now brought to the small screen by the amazing powers that be who had enlisted the incomparable David Suchet into the role of our favourite Belgian detective (even when I say it right, I can hear the dainty little cough that explains 'I am not French. I am Belgian.') I remember seeing these books when I was little, and my mom was putting them on the shelf, and in my country they were printed in hardback, one by one, and in very lively colours, all the spectrum of a rainbow I think. I have them in my room now (because our house is as full of books as a library is), and I still smile every time I look their way. They just bring back so many memories. 

When I got my Kobo E-Reader as a degree present, I realized I could expand my personal library to electronic versions, and one of the first things I did was get my hands on the electronic library of Agatha Christie, snagging her books and making sure that the approximately forty ones dealing with Hercule Poirot's cases were definitely included. Because I do love the little egg-head.

Talkie Tuesday: Outlander (Starz)

Hello everyone!

So, really, talkie covers movies I guess in terms of word definition, BUT, I'm currently a little bit side-tracked (and distracted) by the TV show Outlander. I honestly didn't even know about it until sometime in ... what was it, November? December 2014? In any event, I had heard passing mention about the books (written by Diana Gabaldon), and that was earlier, which led me to make a mental note for myself to check them out at some point. Since this blog is about the show, I'll leave the books for a later one (maybe this Thursday, who knows?). In any event, I did end up finding the electronic versions of the books, although I'm now debating buying the first one, at least, in paperback. But then I thought I wouldn't watch the show because, really, a lot of the time these transitions aren't that good. 

Then I accidentally saw Sam Heughan in a trailer (I think it was a trailer) and all of a sudden, I absolutely HAD to see this show.

Tome Thursday: Girl Online

Hello everyone!

Back in force this week, it's time for another book review, or semi-review, since I don't want to give absolutely everything away, although granted, I'm aware that some of you might still go all ACK if you haven't read this yet. The book I'm talking about is Zoe Sugg's 'Girl Online'. Now, as you know, or probably know, but if you don't you'll learn right now, Zoe Sugg is mostly known as 'Zoella', the beauty and fashion blogger&vlogger from the UK, and she recently published her first book, too. I think she might be in talks for a second book right now, but I'd have to check back through her vlogs to be absolutely sure. Now, I'm not really a beauty kind of girl, as in, I don't own a ton of make-up and I tend to throw on some mascara and concealer, and that's pretty much it (oh, and perfume, but that's another story). So I don't necessarily follow Zoella for her beauty vlogs. I do, however, follow her because she just seems to be an absolute sweetheart! I mean, she's adorable, half the time I want t hug her SO. MUCH. It's pretty insane I suppose. Anyway, when I heard she'd released a book, I was all YES!!! because, as you may have noticed, I'm a book nerd. I managed to somehow let it slip my mind a little until a blog post from my friend Maegan reminded me about it (by the way, you should totally check out her other blog posts here, or her articles on Glossyfinds.com). So, this past Sunday, I snuggled up with some candy and about a litre of water and got down to it.

Talkie Tuesday: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Cowabunga!

Er, hello everyone! Happy New Year! 

I hope you all said goodbye to 2014 properly and welcomed 2015 with a bang! I had a fairly slow New Year's Eve and quite enjoyed it after the last couple of years of always partying it up till dawn. So mostly it was about getting my batteries all stocked up on energy again so I can kick the year off with some more blog posts.

And to start it off, it would probably be a good idea to say that, no, I don't really meet and greet people with 'Cowabunga'. It's just the one thing I can actually, vividly remember from when I first watched the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (from now on TMNT, because my brain is trying to mess with me whenever I spell this!) back when it was still just a cartoon. I didn't watch it often, but I do remember them running around, following their rat-pack leader, and saving the day. Curiously enough I have no memory of April O'Neill ... but then I was a kid back then. And in honour of my kiddie memories, I decided to see what the 2014 movie remake was all about.                        

                                                                                                                        Paramount Pictures