A Week of Rereading...

I like revisiting a book I've already read for some of the same reasons I like returning to the same beach house again and again; it's familiar. I know what to expect and I know all the best spots, so I can just relax and enjoy the experience. And with no library books currently hanging over my head, I decided to take a break from my TBR shelf and spend a few days rereading some old favorites.

I bought Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field by Melissa Nathan over a decade ago when I was going through my British chic lit phase, and I wanted to see if it was as funny as I remembered (and if I still want to keep it). Jasmin Field is a journalist who has been cast as Lizzie Bennet in a stage version of Pride and Prejudice being produced for a charity event; the director of the play is Oscar-winning actor Harry Noble, whom Jasmine finds as arrogant as he is handsome. Life imitates art when Harry finds himself unexpectedly attracted to her. (You can see where this is going, can't you?) Despite being completely predictable, this bit of romantic fluff is still fun. (But I might be ready to let it go.)

Then, being in the mood for a little more romance, I binge read three of my favorite Rosamunde Pilcher books--those deceptively simple yet beautifully written novels about two people falling in love, where the spaces between the lines and what isn't said is almost more important than what is. (As a bookish bonus, they're also all set in amazingly irresistable places like Scotland, Cornwall, and Mallorca.) My chosen threesome? Snow in April, The Day of the Storm, and Sleeping Tiger. It was like being on summer vacation...and just what I needed this week.

Happy Rereading!

A Few of My Favorite Reads...of 2014

It's been a good year of reading for me... 

I read a lot of books that I really liked and some that I loved. 

Here are a few of my favorites:

My Absolute Favorite 2014 reads:

Delia's Shadow by Jaime Lee Moyer

The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N. Murari

First Impressions by Charlie Lovett

Two Favorite New Authors:

Donato Carrisi

Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Three of the Funniest Books I read this year: 

The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie

The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healey

Definitely the Scariest book:

Mary: The Summoning by Hillary Monahan

My favorite bookish journey through time:

My summer of reading books from 1914

My least favorite read:

Homer's Odyssey

And finally, my Five Favorite Suspense reads

that Thrill and Chill:

Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Where Monsters Dwell by Jorgen Brekke

Mayhem by Sarah Pinborough

Silence by Sarah Rayne

Happy Reading!!!

Ysabel

Sometimes it only takes one sentence to know whether you want to read a book or not.  Which is why I flipped through one of my recent summer rereads (and one of my all-time favorite books) and chose 4 sentences at random. I hope they pique your interest in this extraordinary tale. Here they are:

1. Ned sighed, "I met a girl yesterday morning."

2. "I think you ought to go now," the man said finally. "You have blundered into a corner of a very old story.  It is no place for children."

3. The soul within her, each time she's summoned, alters her a little, makes her behave differently, which is why and how her desire, her need--over two thousand six hundred years--can change.

4. He thought of her, he thought of Ysabel.

Happy Reading!