Jayne's Books

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a fun weekly meme that is hosted byShelia at Book Journey, in which we share what we've read and reviewed and what we plan on reading in the coming week.

What I have reviewed since the last post:
1) Longbourn by Jo Baker (review) 

Books I plan on working on this coming week:
• The Count of Monte Cristo
• Northanger Abbey
• War & Peace
• The Good Earth
(I am planning to finish Northanger Abbey this week)

What's up next:
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Time... 2:19 pm Place... In my living room Listening to... Catching up on podcasts Eating... Just finishing up some coffee; started breakfast late, which became brunch

Watching... Wednesday's episode of Top Chef and other stuff on my PVR Reading...I just finished up Longbourn this week and haven't been really reading much this past week due to just being really busy and having to watch a bunch of library DVDs this past week Making... Was thinking of making cookies this afternoon, but at this point I don't know, as I have a bunch of laundry to do today before work tomorrow.  Maybe this evening instead.

Planning... Nothing really at the moment; planning on spending a lot of time at home reading this coming week

Feeling...  a bit rushed and anxious; I'll probably be fine in a bit

Loving... the fact that it really hasn't rained for the past month

Wanting... to just calm down and feel calm

Thinking... about not getting too far ahead of myself

Looking forward to... Saturday's Ca…

Title: Longbourn
Author: Jo Baker
Pages: 352
Published: 2013
Challenges: Jane Austen, Historical Fiction
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary
Edition: Hardcover
Source: Public Library

Description: The servants at Longbourn estate--only glancingly mentioned in Jane Austen's classic--take centre stage in Jo Baker's lively, cunning new novel. Here are the Bennets as we have never known them: seen through the eyes of those scrubbing the floors, cooking the meals, emptying the chamber pots. Our heroine is Sarah, an orphaned housemaid beginning to chafe against the boundaries of her class. When the militia marches into town, a new footman arrives under mysterious circumstances, and Sarah finds herself the object of the attentions of an ambitious young former slave working at neighboring Netherfield Hall, the carefully choreographed world downstairs at Longbourn threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, up-ended. (via Goodreads)

Thoughts: A funny thing happens sometimes…

It's been a couple of months since I did this, but I have read and reviewed a number of books during that time.  I am sorry for getting this out late, but day just got away on me.

Here are the books that I have read and reviewed since my last post:
• The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
• The Life and Times of Call the Midwife by Heidi Thomas
• The Dinner by Herman Koch
• A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
• Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz
• Emma by Jane Austen
• Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
• Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
(remember these are two months worth of reviews)

Here are the books that I am working on this coming month:
• Longbourne
• Northanger Abbey
• The Good Earth
• War & Peace (year-long read)
• The Count of Monte Cristo

See you in about a month, hop…

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a fun weekly meme that is hosted byShelia at Book Journey, in which we share what we've read and reviewed and what we plan on reading in the coming week.

What I have reviewed since the last post:
1) Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë (review)
2) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (review)
3) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (review) 

Books I plan on working on this coming week:
• The Count of Monte Cristo
• Longbourne
• Northanger Abbey
• War & Peace
• The Cuckoo's Nest
• The Good Earth
 (and no I don't intend on completing them all)

 What's up next:
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Pages: 550
Published: 2007 (first published 2005)
Challenges: OfftheShelf, TBR Pile, Historical Fiction, Book Blogger Recommendation
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Young Adult
Edition: Paperback
Source: Personal Library

Description:It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. (via Goodreads)

Thoughts: There are a few times in which I have taken a few days to read a book and this is one of those times when no other book really mattered.  While I did listen to the audio while I read the book, it was no le…

Title: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Author: J.K. Rowling
Pages: 766
Published: 2003
Challenges: OfftheShelf
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult
Edition: Paperback
Source: Personal Library

Description: Harry Potter is due to start his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His best friends Ron and Hermione have been very secretive all summer and he is desperate to get back to school and find out what has been going on. However, what Harry discovers is far more devastating than he could ever have expected . . . (via Goodreads)

Thoughts: At one point, I wanted quit reading it, as I felt that Harry was getting too petulant for my liking, but somewhere I remember that being 15 was no easy feat and was probably one of the hardest years I had to go through and gave Harry a bit of slack and understanding.  As for the story, it probably is the darkest book of the series, as it touches upon things that are significant in the final two books of the series.  It als…

Title: Agnes Grey
Author: Anne Brontë
Pages (File Size): 110 pages (352 KB)
Published: 2004 (originally published 1847)
Challenges: E-book, The Classics Club
Genre: Classics, Fiction, Literature
Edition: E-book
Source: Personal

Description: When her family becomes impoverished after a disastrous financial speculation, Agnes Grey determines to find work as a governess in order to contribute to their meagre income and assert her independence. But Agnes’s enthusiasm is swiftly extinguished as she struggles first with the unmanageable Bloomfield children and then with the painful disdain of the haughty Murray family; the only kindness she receives comes from Mr Weston, the sober young curate. (via Goodreads)

Thoughts: This was my first AnneBrontë book and I came away with lukewarm feelings. I have read other books about governess' and really felt that it was a bit weak and not something that I particularly enjoyed.  I realize that it was her first book, but I felt that it was pushed ah…

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a fun weekly meme that is hosted byShelia at Book Journey, in which we share what we've read and reviewed and what we plan on reading in the coming week.

What I have reviewed since the last post:
1) The Thorn Birds by Collen McCollough (review) 

What I am planning on reading this week:
• The Count of Monte Cristo
• Longbourne
• Northanger Abbey
• War & Peace
• The Cuckoo's Nest
• The Good Earth
 (and no I don't intend on completing them all)

What's up next:
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Title: The Thorn Birds
Author: Colleen McCullough
Pages: 692
Published: 2003 (first published 1977)
Challenges: Classics Club, Historical Fiction, Chunskter Challenge
Genre: Historical Fiction, Classics
Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Source: Personal

Description: Colleen McCullough's sweeping saga of dreams, struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback has enthralled readers the world over. This is the chronicle of three generations of Clearys, ranchers carving lives from a beautiful, hard land while contending with the bitterness, frailty, and secrets that penetrate their family. Most of all, it is the story of only daughter Meggie and her lifelong relationship with the haunted priest Father Ralph de Bricassart—an intense joining of two hearts and souls that dangerously oversteps sacred boundaries of ethics and dogma.

A poignant love story, a powerful epic of struggle and sacrifice, a celebration of individuality and spirit, Colleen McCullough's accla…

I am starting this really late; totally forgot about this.  I realize that there still is another full week ahead, but I still feel as though I am late to the game.  But nonetheless here I go.

If you want to join, you can sign up for the read-a-thon at http://www.myshelfconfessions.com/wwreadathon/.  You don't need to have a blog to do it.  You can see the dates that it runs in the picture next to this post, but you have only about 4 more days to actually sign up.

Here are my goals:
• section for Northanger Abbey read-a-long at Unputdownables
• The Cuckoo's Calling (at least get into a considerable bit of the book)
• The Count of Monte Cristo (at least until about Chapter 42 or so)
• Book 9 of War & Peace
• start reading The Good Earth
• Longbourne by Jo Baker

I realize that its quite a bit of reading, but these are just goals and some of these are quite doable.  I will update each evening with a separate post.

I apologize for not updating as soon as I said I would, but blogging hasn't exactly been at the forefront of my mind, being that I have been busy reading over the last few weeks.

Surprisingly I have finished quite a few books on my list for this challenge, but no reviews of the books that I have read.    I even read one book that I didn't include on my list and I think that there will be many additions to the list during the course of the readathon for the next couple of months.





Here is what I have read, but not reviewed as of yet:
• The Thorn Birds
• Agnes Grey
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• The Book Thief

I am planning on working reviews of these books during the next few days.

I also want to give people a heads up on a readathon that started on Friday.  Its called the Wonderfully Wicked Read-A-Thon.  You can still sign up for another few days and I think you can just hop right it in.  You can sign up here: http://www.myshelfconfessions.com/wwreadathon/

I hop…