Dare to be different and learn to be lonely

Trying to get back on track with the reading updates. This is a copy of my check-in on thestoryinside.

Who was your buddy this month? welshgirl15

What books were chosen for you?
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahm Smith (Thriller & original Female Author)
Circe by Madeline Miller (Female Author)
The Anatomy of Murder by The Detection Club (Thriller* & Female Author as part of group)

Which books did you read and would you recommend them?
I made an effort to read all of them, to various succes;)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was a disappointment; I thought it would be a lovely twist on the original Pride and Prejudice, but it was much less exciting than the story it used as an inspiration. The dialogue is not as sparkling and often feels out of character. The zombies are mostly only talked about and we don't really get to see them in action. The first fight scene is over just like that. I was very bored and eventually decided to not torture myself any longer. I'm putting the original on my next reading list in stead!

Circe is a wonderful retelling of the life of immortal goddess Circe, daughter of god of the sun Helios and the nymph Perse (daughter of Oceanus). It reminded me of Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad, in that the story is told from the point of view of a woman who before was usually portrayed based on the men her life was influenced by. When the gods discover Circe can do magic, she is banned to an island. That doesn't stop her from leading an inspiring life. Definitely recommended if you were fascinated by Stephen Fry's Mythos, or liked the aforementioned Penelopiad, both good books to prepare you for the adventures of Circe.

*I'm still in the middle of The Anatomy of Murder, which turned out to be not a thriller, but a collection of reports on courtcases by a group of authors who were intrigued by real murders in Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. I wasn't aware because this was a book I bought based on the cool cover and as per usual I did not read the backflap but just dove in. So far the stories are well researched; the authors make use of witness reports as well as correspondence between police detectives. The Detection Club was established in 1930 and this book was first published in 1936. Most of the murders are not well known (anymore) but indeed interesting, varying from gunshotwounds to poisening. Having been an avid viewer of CSI (the original Las Vegas version;) I was surprised by the amount of evidence that was collected even back in the nineteenth century. Recommended for lovers of detectives and law & order proceedings!

Outside your chosen books, what books did you read this month, and would you recommend them?
Didn't read any other books because of a the SPN_J2_BigBang event, where I read two long fics about magic and mermaids respectively. These will be published sometime in the Summer with artwork by me. (This is why I'm not a bookbuddy in June and July:)

If y'all lived near me, I would send you to my masseuse, because she is AWESOME \o/ Today I chose my regular massage, which is called "Time for yourself" and it was once again marvelous. Thanks to all the hassle at work it had been over six months since I last had a chance to visit her. Definitely too long. I made another appointment for next week, when she will introduce me to a full body Therapeutic Tuina massage, which apparently involves not just stroking and rubbing muscles, but also tapping, pulling and shaking my extremities. Sounds exciting, right? It's supposed to give you an energy boost. Today's massage was all about relaxing though. Which reminds me... note to self: "don't plan anything afterwards, don't think you can get groceries on the way home, just because the bio-supermarket happens to be on your cycling route. Go straight home to crash in bed or on the couch."
Heh. I never learn. But when I finally got home, I did set my timer and dozed off for an hour, that was almost as nice as the massage. I look and feel totally relaxed now.

So far I'm loving my summervacation:)

Next on the "I should really do this when I have time"-list: watch Scott Pilgrim vs The World. And thanks to gifsets on Tumblr of boys kissing, I also put Dare on my program.
So I'm off for tonight for an evening of chilling up in my attic. Will catch up with all of your journals tomorrow!

Oh, before I go: I just read this in Lynn Flewelling's LiveJournal (otterdance)
"[I] have to finish the upcoming Nightrunner book by January (gad!). After that I hope to pick away at some short stories for Glimpses II..."
If you've read the Nightrunners series you know how exciting this news is! If not, watch out for my review of the first two books. I'll be posting it later this week!

Speaking of bookreviews (I'm going, I'm going, just a second) - I posted one for Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell: I gave it 10/10, yes you read that right. Click link to find out why:)

The john_w_bigbang is a go! My author and I aren't posting until March 31st, but until then my fellow participants are sharing a new story/art combo featuring either John Winchester (SPN) or Jeffrey Dean Morgan (RPS) every day. Go check it out!

Another countdown for April 6... I had mentioned to brotherdearest that I was trying to find a way to visit London in April to see Zach Braff's play All New People and to my surprise he was interested in joining me! This will be the first trip with his big sister:) (I've travelled with my other brother Jaap before, but somehow never managed to make plans with "baby" brother Hans, even though we have much more in common (like our love for Buffy/Angel marathonsessions:) I'm very excited, also because we're going to try a different way of transportation. The Eurostar (train) turned out to be too expensive on short notice, but I found out there is a daily bus-service that's very affordable. It will take us longer, but unlike the train the busses go at night as well, so that saves on hotel expenses and feels like saving time;) We managed to arrange everything right away! We'll be taking the nightbus from Amsterdam on Friday 6 April, see the play on Saturday, spend a night in my favorite hotel WITH BATHTUB and then take the daybus back on Sunday. I have no idea if we'll be able to catch some sleep on the bus (I hope I can read on the way back*), since there are a lot of stops along the way through the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Plus there is the boat across The Channel of course, I understand we have to get off the bus for that, which may be very early in the morning. It will be quite an adventure :-D

After not updating my bookcommunity in the last two days, I'm back on track. Here are the latest reviews:

Als Ik Het Even Niet Meer Weet, Doe Ik Altijd Een Stapje Vooruit - Loesje
(When I'm Lost, I Always Take A Step Forward)

Vaslav - Arthur Japin

*I finished Hofstadter by the way and am now rereading part 3 of the Nightrunners-series (in less than two months part 6 will be published!) I plan to buy The Hungergames in London and I also put the new Aidan Chambers on my shoppinglist (which also includes shoes, toys and toiletries:) Of course shop-opportunities also depend on brotherdearest's whishes, but I'm sure we'll at least go to Waterstone's \o/ (Hope the apostrophe is still on the building!)

Work is a rollercoaster at the moment; yesterday I had managed to clear my desk, so this morning I had nothing to do. I figured I'd take advantage of the situation and asked the bossman if I could go home early. Of course then he remembered an assignment that had been lying around on his desk for a while, which wouldn't necessarily interfere with my plans, but right after that I received several mails from different clients and all of a sudden I was crazy busy. Pfff.

So I feared I wouldn't be able to go bookshopping as I had hoped (shops are closed by the time I normally get back into town). Fortunately I could get a lot done and I allowed myself to move one order to Monday, so I could stick to my plan of leaving an hour earlier. As a result I added two books to my to-read-list!.

Not only do I now have two new books to read, the book that I got as a gift because of Bookweek also serves as a free trainticket on Sunday (the National Railway is sponsor of Bookweek to promote reading on the train) - so guess what I'm doing this weekend:) The Hague, here I come!

What are your plans?

Updated my bookcommunity with review of
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time - Mark Haddon

Woohoo, it's Dutch Bookweek (Boekenweek), which means I will treat myself to two (2!) new books, because when you buy a Dutch novel this week*, you get a book for free! This year's gift is written by Belgian author Tom Lanoye. I really liked his book "Kartonnen Dozen" (Cardboard boxes), an autobiographical novel about his first teenage crush (on a boy), and I'm curious to find out what he did with this year's bookweektheme of 'Friendship'.

Currently I'm still reading Le Ton beau de Marot by Douglas R. Hofstadter (about 'the music of language'), which I hope to finish this week. I had planned to catch up on writing reviews while I was reading this and the bookpile was not getting any bigger, but I have only about 150 pages to go (out of 700) and still haven't updated my bookcommunity that's been stuck in June 2011 thanks to artwork, loads of reading and other excuses. *hangs head in shame*

I'm determined to post at least one bookreview every day this week (and the next...). For inspiration I made photos of every book(cover) and I will include these in my bookcommunity thej2bee. But today's review is of a book I borrowed and have since returned, so that's posted old style (LINK BELOW:) I'll only put up links to these reviews here in my personal journal, so you won't get spammed with a daily dose of book if you don't follow the community. I am however starting here with a photo of the whole pile of books that I read in the past few months:)



Behind the cut a photo of the book at the bottom that I will not write about in the bookcommunity because there is no story to talk about and it's not necessarily safe for work, as they say;) I do however love to share it with you: it's a picture book by Joe Phillips called Boys Will Be Boys and the cover alone will give you a pretty good idea what the rest of the book is like *g* Warning/enticement: drawings of pretty boys! No full frontal nudity in this image (there are some nudes in the book though) but be warned for bare chests (nipples, yay!)

( Oh boy(s) )

Updated my bookcommunity with review of
The Art Of Travel - Alain de Botton

*Bookweek is actually ten days long \o/

Once again a tiny apology to the flist that was bombarded with these bookposts. But I'm sure you wouldn't have signed up for reading-community thej2bee if you weren't at least a little interested in my reviews *grins*
My bookpile for 2011 is already a bit daunting and I'm hoping to write reviews on the other books I finished before the end of the year, but I feel already accomplished for writing these five today, so I'm going to do something other than self assigned homework for a bit;)
In the meantime, I offer you these:

The Bride's Farewell - Meg Rosoff

The Greatest Show On Earth - Richard Dawkins

Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom

The Three Incestuous Sisters - Audrey Niffenegger

Don't know where to start? The Greatest Show On Earth is my favorite.
Out of the novels I rated The Five People You Meet In Heaven an 8/10.

I haven't done all my chores yet (the dishes are still waiting;) but I did manage to finally write another book-review: Arthur Japin - De Zwarte Met Het Witte Hart (The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi - available in many languages)

I still have eight other books to talk about, but what's left of today will be dedicated to fandom. I've been having really awesome chat-sessions with the author who claimed my sketch in the spn_reversebang and I am now itching to work on the artwork for this:)

I'm trying a new Bpal scent today: "Haunted" (A mournful, poignant scent, thick with foreboding. Soft golden amber darkened with a touch of murky black musk.). Will review later;)

Last but not least, a question: I have a massage planned in a couple of weeks and can't decide on what kind to treat myself to. There are many options: Chinese/Tissue/Hot Stone/Chocolate, etc. Does anyone have any experience with this? I only had massages from a therapist when I suffered from backpain, this will be the first time I indulge in one for pleasure. Suggestions are very welcome.

I love how I still receive new comments on my Big Bang Artwork" *beams*

As promised I posted a load of bookreviews today. If you have my bookcommunity thej2bee on your flist, you were totally spammed, HA! I still have three reviews left to translate, but I'm saving them for tomorrow (to take my mind off traveling stress, which has already kicked in - eeep).
Here are the ones you can already read about:

The Descent Of Man - Charles Darwin

How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff

What I Was - Meg Rosoff

Tuesdays With Morrie - Mitch Albom

Een Schitterend Gebrek (In Lucia's Eyes) - Arthur Japin

Dwaalsporen - Jacques Brooijmans

I Am What I Am - John Barrowman

When I Knew - Robert Trachtenberg (Ed.)

Het Zijn Net Mensen (People Like Us: Misrepresenting the Middle East*) - Joris Luyendijk

*Recently published in the UK under the title: "Hello Everybody!: One Journalist’s Search for Truth in the Middle East"

I also have some more BigBang fics to recommend, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to finish that list before I leave for London on Tuesday. (ONLY TWO MORE NIGHTS - let the frantic preparation and packing begin. Yes, I'm a very experienced traveler and should not be so fucking nervous, I know, okay.)

*off to empty camera, load e-reader, check bank account, pick clothes, make groceries-list, etcetera, etcetera*

Third morning in a row I wake up with a comatose laptop next to me. Fell asleep while reading AGAIN. Oh well, at least I remembered to pull out the plug, so it only ran until the battery died. Better than waking up with the screensaver running (although it is a lovely slideshow of pretty;)

My Aussie shampoo smells like the hair of my first (and only) boyfriend. Huh. So not an Aussie. *grins* It brings back memories.

Hey look: another bookreview. Highly recommended, this one: Just In Case - Meg Rosoff

Maybe if I go to bed earlier I'll be able to finish the story (or at least a chapter) before dreamtime. Hmmm. Let's try that.

Also: my right eye has been twitching from lack of sleep all week. I'm such an idiot. Why can't I just wait until the weekend to get my fix of fanfic. Oh right. An addict. Oops.

The snow is swirling outside and I decided not to leave the house. I hadn't planned it, but looks like today is going to be a pajamaday. So far I managed to avoid porn and have done mostly more useful stuff to pass the time. I did my laundry, fixed the sandwichtoaster I killed last week (who knew there was such a thing as too much melted cheese) and wrote three extensive bookreports. I even succeeded in eating proper food in between! I am rather proud of myself :)

Bookreports are posted in thej2bee:

Månefeen - Kjersti Scheen Fourteen year old girl deals with anorexia

Dash & Dingo In Search Of The Tasmanian Tiger - Catt Ford & Sean Kennedy Adventurous duo explore Tasmania and each other

The Origin Of Species - Charles Darwin The basis of the theory of Evolution