I had such a good weekend and was able to do a bit of, well what seemed like everything. I like those kinds of weekends you know.

Saturday I took workshop at the Craft Guild of Dallas and made a long-stitch journal. I need to take some pictures of it to show you. I also found out that the Guild of Bookworkers is having a seminar in Dallas in mid-October. I would like to go but it’s kind of pricey. I think I’d rather sign up for more classes instead.

I also got to see two movies this weekend. 2 Days in Paris and Becoming Jane. The movies were fun and best of all I got see one of them with Christine.

Finally, I started and am almost finished with The Society of S by Susan Hubbard. This is my third R.I.P. II Challenge book and it’s been really good so far. Quite a different take on the vampire story. Speaking of vampires, two book groups (Our Coffee Rings and Reading Matters) have Dracula by Bram Stoker as their next selection. I think this is a sign that I finally need to read the book.

For now I’m looking forward to tomorrow – it’s book group night!

Bookgirl Caught Reading

Vacation helped me catch up on a lot of my reading and I finished 10 books. I was even able to make a bit of a dent in some my challenge reads. Here’s the rundown (click on the titles to go to my reviews):

Three books were Advance Reader Copies: The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani, Mademoiselle Victorine by Debra Finerman and Sword and Blossom by Peter Pagnamenta and Momoko Williams.

Two books were for the R.I.P. II Challenge: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray and The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason. I cannot wait to read the second book in each of the series.

Two other books were also for challenges: A Year by the Sea by Joan Anderson was for the Armchair Traveler Challenge, and Evening by Susan Minot was for the Book to Movie Challenge.

Two random reads: Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda and Hurting Distance by Sophie Hannah.

One book group read: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. I’m saving my review for this one until Tuesday when I meet with my book group so stay tuned.

And, believe it or not I did take Don Quixote with me. I didn’t finish it so I’m not counting it but I’m getting closer to the middle. Sigh, still such a long way to go but what a tale.

In case you are wondering which book was my favorite it’s a toss up between The Blood of Flowers, A Fine Balance and Evening.

Have a great weekend everyone. I’m going to try and catch up with all the magazines that have been piling up while I was away.

I’m still trying to sort through all the fliers and papers I collected on my trip and I ran across another magazine I forgot I had bought, Exberliner, an English language city guide. What is special about the issue I bought is that it’s the literary issue with a focus on English-language bookstores in Berlin.

Why didn’t I have this before I went! Actually last year I did visit one of the bookstores mentioned in the article and now at least I am prepared for next year’s trip. Plus now I also know where to go for some poetry readings.

Anyway, I wanted to post some book reviews tonight but I got sidetracked when I couldn’t find a lot of my photos. Talk about freaking out because I thought I’d lost them forever. Luckily my husband was able to recover the memory card and now my photos are all saved. Big sigh of relief.

So instead of the book reviews I’ll give you a list of books that caught my attention and I wish I could have bought but that Euro was making things a bit expensive so these books remain on the wish list for now. If anyone has read any of these let me know what you think.

• Fortune Like the Moon by Alys Clare
• In the Dark by Deborah Moggach (I read Tulip Fever and enjoyed that book. If this one had been a paperback I probably would have bought it but the hardback prices were killers).
• The Messengers of Death by Pierre Magnan
• The Act of Roger Murgatroyd by Gilbert Adair
• Poppy Shakespeare by Clare Allan
• The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell