Waiting on Wednesday (4-13-11)

Happy Wednesday, everyone! And since it is Wednesday, that means that it's time for Waiting on Wednesday! This weekly meme is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It's a way to highlight upcoming releases and connect with other bloggers. This week, my pick is  The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin (expected publication: June 21, 2011)

Traveling abroad with her mother at the turn of the twentieth century to seek a titled husband, beautiful, vivacious Cora Cash, whose family mansion in Newport dwarfs the Vanderbilts’, suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Nothing is quite as it seems, however: Ivo is withdrawn and secretive, and the English social scene is full of traps and betrayals. Money, Cora soon learns, cannot buy everything, as she must decide what is truly worth the price in her life and her marriage. (from goodreads.com)

I am so in love with this cover! So, what are you waiting on this Wednesday?

Emma by Jane Austen

Emma
Author: Jane Austen
Published: May 2001
Publisher: Random House
Paperback: 353 pages


My Rating: 3.5 stars


Synopsis (from goodreads.com): Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protégée Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, Emma is often seen as Jane Austen's most flawless work.


My Thoughts: I want to start off this review by saying that this was a great book. I truly enjoyed it, and there were moments of laughter and surprise throughout. However, I felt that this book could not compare to  Pride and Prejudice (at least for me), so that's why it received a 3.5 star rating. I know you shouldn't compare books like that, but I do. Oh well.


Emma is a great comic novel. Now, something that was written back in the 1800s has humor that is different from that of our humor today. But there were several points in the book where I was chuckling to myself at Emma and her attempts to create relationships among her friends. The writing is witty and the characters are never boring. I did sometimes become confused at who was who in their little town, but that was about it. I found each character to bring something different to the table, and Emma's interactions with each of them delightful. Some of the characters, such as Miss Bates, are there solely for humor. Each time she appeared in the book, I knew that Jane Austen was going to have a funny moment ahead. 


It was an enjoyable book, one that is definitely going to be staying on my bookshelf. As I said before, I did not feel that this book was as good as  Pride and Prejudice, but it is still a classic and one that I will be sure to recommend to anyone.

It's Monday! What are you reading? (4-11-11)

It's Monday! So what are you reading? This weekly meme is hosted by Shelia at Book Journey and it's a great way to see what you have read, what you are reading now, and what you plan to read later this week.

This week was a slow one for me. I finally finished Emma. I don't know why it took me so long to read, but that's the only thing that I have been reading this week. Definitely going to be some lighter choices the next few weeks (not that the book was heavy ... I just don't want to deal with Old English anymore, haha)

Books I Read This Week:

Emma by Jane Austen (review up later today)

Books I Plan to Read This Week:

All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve

Bossypants by Tina Fey

So, what are you reading this week?

In My Mailbox (4-10-11)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. You get to show off all your finds/wins/borrows from the past week. This week, I got quite a few books, and my wishlist grew even longer (unforunate for my wallet, haha). The books that I purchased this week:

 

Bossypants by Tina Fey

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer

(I got this at Half-Priced Books, hardcover, for only $8! I was so excited!)

Book I won (this was from a few weeks ago, but I kept on forgetting to post it):

The Anti-Romantic Child by Priscilla Gilman

So, what was in your mailbox this week?

Book Blog Hop and Follow Friday!

Happy Friday everybody! Time for the book blog hop and Follow Friday! The Book Blog Hop question will be posted later today so make sure to check back later and see my answer to that question. In the meantime, this week's question from Parajunkee is:

Do you judge a book by it's cover?

Absolutely! I have no shame in admitting this. It's the cover of the book that will grab my eye. But I don't buy a book based on the cover alone. I will read the description on the back of the book, and I also read a few pages to see if I'm going to like it. If a book doesn't have a good cover, then chances are that I won't pick it up.

Do you judge a book by it's cover? Let me know!

Waiting on Wednesday (4-6-11)

Happy Wednesday everyone! Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It's a way to highlight new releases and books that you just can't wait to read! This week, my pick is In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson (expected release date: May 10, 2011).

Synopsis (from borders.com): The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.
 
A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.
 
Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming--yet wholly sinister--Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.

I have read Larson's other book, The Devil in the White City and couldn't believe at how it read like a work of fiction! I definitely cannot wait for this book to come out!

So, what are you waiting on this Wednesday?

Top Ten Tuesday (4-5-11)

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, they post a topic, and you get to create your own top ten list. It's a lot of fun, and a great way to get to know other bloggers. This week, the topic is book covers I wish I could redesign. I will try and hit 10, but no guarantees!

1) The Great Gatsby - I love this book, and for being an American classic, the cover is very confusing. The first time I saw this cover, I thought it was about a ghost named Gatsby.

2) The Twilight series - I don't know why, but these covers have never really appealed to me. Especially the cover for the fourth book, with the chess piece.

3) Jane Eyre - I have seen this version of Jane Eyre in several bookstores, and each time, it totally turns me off from the book. I just recently read it, and I feel like this cover does no justice to this classic.

5) These Things Hidden - I also read this book recently, and it wasn't because I liked the cover that I bought the book. It was because I had previously read the author ... after finishing the book, I just felt like the cover could have been better.

I can't think of anymore right now, but I know there are lots out there!