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The Greatest of Sins by Christine Merrill
May’s Book Club Selection
This month’s Book Club book selection was The Greatest of Sins by Christine Merrill. If you still have not picked up your copy of this book for your Kindle or Nook, please see my original post, Bebe’s Book Club: May’s Selection, to get yours today and join in on the discussion!
BEA, Here I Come!
It’s official! As of yesterday, thanks to my wonderful husband buying me a ticket for Mother’s Day, I will now be going to BEA 2013! I have been up in the air about attending for a a couple of weeks now. I was going back and forth about going to the Blogger’s Conference but also wanted to be able to do the actual expo too and didn’t think I could swing two days in NYC. So I eventually decided to just do the expo one day and treat myself to a day of fun and networking!
While I have never attended the event, I’ve been reading other people’s blogs about it and I am getting super excited! But I have tons of questions!! Do you really get as many books as they say? Will I have enough time to cover everything in one day? How early do you need to get there? What’s the best course of action for a noob like me?
I’m also hoping to network a little while there. Not just for my blog, but I was hoping to do so for my writing as well. Are there even agents/publishers there looking for that? Should I be bringing query letters with me as well or is this frowned upon?
For those of you that have been there before and are willing to help a noob out, maybe you can put my mind to rest with some of the questions above. (Thank you kindly!) Either way, I’m looking forward to the surprise of it all. Should be a fun day to meet new people who have the same interests as me. BEA, here I come!
The Great Gatsby Review
Back on my mother’s birthday, I promised her I would take her out to a movie just the two of us. Yeah… that was back in February. Things came up, people got sick, no movies were out that we wanted to see, yadda, yadda, yadda. Fast forward to The Great Gatsby. Mom and I finally had our girls night out, and how fitting that it was the day before Mother’s Day. We are both fans of the book and we both really wanted to check out the latest version by Baz Luhrmann. But here’s the thing, and I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember the book! I remembered it being my favorite book from school. I could remember certain parts, like the big eyes, the swinging parties and the ending, but all that stuff in between? Forget about it! And neither could my mom. So off we went in hopes that our memories would be refreshed.
Now here’s the thing about my love/hate relationship with Baz. While I absolutely loath Moulin Rouge for its campiness, I adore me some Romeo + Juliet. So with a 50/50 chance of Gatsby being a hit, I went in with an open mind expecting that with Leo on board it was sure to please. Plus Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen is like my mantra for life, so I was betting high on this one. Unfortunately (for me), it was a lot more like MR than R+J.
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t completely hate it. It still had Leo and Tobey in it and who couldn’t love the fact that these two are not only playing besties in the movie, but are serious BFFs in real life. I love the idea and the concept and the roaring ’20s and the glitz and the glam and all that goes along with it. I think it was the mixture of current music and certain visual effects that threw me off, similar complaints that I have with MR.
And yes, for those of you still reading, I did recall the book as the movie dragged on. What I did love about the movie was Baz’s take on the book. While I admit that it was a little too campy for my taste, I can’t deny that this is a book you can do this too. The 20′s were such a surreal time with the fashion and music and rebellion that a book like this deserves to be a little amusing and fun.
So the final verdict? It was good. Something I want to buy on DVD? Not really. But I’m glad I went to see it!
And just for the heck of it, here’s a video for you to enjoy Old Sport!
I Cross My Heart by Vicki Lewis Thompson
(Sons of Chance #10)
A deal with a devilishly sexy cowboy
Self-help guru Bethany Grace has returned home to clean up the now-decrepit family ranch after her father’s death. Rather than just set the whole place ablaze (her first choice), she settles for a nice symbolic little blaze outside until things get out of hand!
Cowboy Nash Bledsoe is working at the Last Chance Ranch next door when he sees the smoke. Bethany is the last person he expects—or wants—to see. How can he explain that she’s indirectly responsible for ruining his life?
Still, there’s an opportunity for Nash to buy the ranch if he can help restore it, and the two strike a deal. But there’s a whole lot of chemistry in the fine print, and Nash is about to discover that where there’s smoke, there’s fire!
SAVE SMASH!
For those of you who are into musicals, into drama, into Jack Davenport, this show is for you!! I am absolutely in love with the cast, the concept and the creativity behind what it takes to make this masterpiece. Unfortunately, it’s not getting the ratings and I might have a good idea as to why. One, they had it on at such a late hour. 10pm is really kinda late for weeknights for most people and I found myself having to watch it on the computer the next day. Then NBC made the dreaded “Saturday Night Move”. They really only want to do that to shows they want to cancel. (Which from what I’ve heard, it’s a pretty expensive show to produce so with the low ratings, I’m not surprised the stupidheads at NBC would pull a brave move like that) First they moved the night, then they moved the time. Again. So now Smash is on Saturday nights at 8pm (unless they move it again, which I think the finale is set to be on Sunday. Super! Confuse us some more!).
So now it’s up to us, the fans, the keep this show alive. If you are a SMASHer, head over to Facebook and LIKE the show’s main Facebook page and Don’t Cancel Smash’s Facebook Page. #KeepSmashing!
I’m Going to Disney World!
Okay… not for another year and a half… but who can’t get excited about going to Disney? (My husband, apparently)
Every other year my entire family (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) all go down through my aunt’s vacation club. With life getting in the way, I’ve never, in all the years they have been doing it, been able to go with the family. I was either going to school or working or the funds just weren’t there. I was bummed but kind of okay with it at the same time. If I’m going to spend and exuberant amount of money, I wanted to be able to see new things. But now with a young child, I CANNOT wait to go. Everything will be brand new through his eyes. And believe me, his eyes… they’re a big and bright and he’s already excited. By the time we go, he will be about 3 and a 1/2 years old. Young enough to get excited but old enough to hopefully remember everything.
Has anyone else brought their children that young to Disney? If so, how much did they remember when they were older? I’m hoping it’s not sensory overload for him, but we already plan on taking it slow and only doing one park per day so not to over excite the poor thing. Just taking him to the All Star Resort to see Herbie will probably make his day!
Bite Me, Your Grace by Brooklyn Ann
England’s “vampire craze” causes much vexation for the Lord Vampire of London, Ian Ashton. To save his reputation, Ian enlists aspiring authoress Angelica Winthrop without realizing she has hidden plans of her own.
Angelica Winthrop’s life goal is to ruin her reputation, avoid marriage, and become a gothic authoress like her idol, Mary Shelley. To find inspiration for her new story, she breaks into the home of Ian Ashton, Duke of Burnrath, not knowing she will be coming up against the Lord Vampire of London. Romance sparks and reputations are at stake. But who knows the real difference between fact and fiction?
Bebe’s Book Club: May’s Selection
This month’s Book Club book selection is The Greatest of Sins by Christine Merrill. Please join me in reading this historical romance novel! I will open the book up for discussion starting May 15th.
