Closing 2014

This year has seen a lot of changes in my life and one of those is that time for blogging has been virtually non existent. I tried by best to keep up but I'm afraid I won't be back in the next few months... Maybe one day...

In the mean time I am still reading and recording my reviews on Goodreads. I don't have much time to read blogs so I mostly keep up with the series I was reading. And the lack of time has also led me to read "categories" which may be nice reading snacks for when you just have an hour of two to kill.

I hope to be back one day but as for right now I just don't have the time and the energy. I just want to close the Port HF Reading Challenge and then let's see what the future brings.

Google Reader

Still not much reading done this week. I have the TBR Challenge deadline this week and I have started Scarpetta since the theme was to catch up on a series. It's been a while since I picked up a Patricia Cornwell story so this seemed like the perfect time. Unfortunately I am not finding it all that interesting and my mind keeps drifting away to other things. Will I finish it in time?

On a different subject I just checked my feeds on Google Reader (haven't done that in a few days so maybe I'm a bit late realising this...) and saw an announcement that it will disappear on July 1st. How am I going to follow all those blogs that I have listed there? I can't possibly blog hop through all of them everyday. I need a feed reader!!

Anyone has any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Popular Posts and Book Lists

A few days ago I spent some time working on Blogger. I need to get the hang of this new look, because it is a bit different, so I can stop spending a couple of hours every time I want to edit a post. It's a crazy feeling knowing that there is a way to do something and not finding the right button.

Since I was at it I decided to check out the widgets and I ended up adding a few to my side bar. One of them was the popular posts widget. I was quite surprised to find out that my most popular post is a book list! In fact most of the posts tagged as book lists were quite popular. This is quite funny because I do love going through book lists, see what I've read, what I haven't and what catches my eye, and it seems my readers do too. Either that or it is because there are so many authors mentioned in that list.

The other popular posts ended up being a surprise as well. I would expect more book reviews and especially book reviews of better known authors. I guess I shouldn't assume what is and what is not popular. I decided to leave the widget on my sidebar so I can check regularly. I'm really curious to see if those posts will change...

Guestposting at Austenprose

I am a big Georgette Heyer fan and was quite happy, and honoured, to be invited to post a review of one her books as a part of the Heyer Celebration at Austenprose during this month of August. My review was up yesterday so, if you want to read my thoughts on The Talisman Ring, stop there for a visit and, since you're at it,  you can also enter one of the Heyer themed giveaways that are happening at the moment and read reviews on more than 30 of her books. Enjoy!!

Georgette Heyer Celebration at Austenprose

Stylish, witty and historically accurate, novelist Georgette Heyer has been delighting readers with her romantic comedies for eighty-nine years. In honor of her birthday on August 16th, Austenprose.com will feature a month long event ‘Celebrating Georgette Heyer’ featuring thirty-four book reviews of her romance novels, guest blogs, interviews of Heyer enthusiast from the blog-o-sphere, academia and publishing and tons of great giveaways.

Come and join us, I'll be there on August 8th!

Visiting Friends...

Today I am visiting Maria Grazia's Fly High blog. She was kind enough to invite me to take part in a blogger event where she interviews her friends and we chat about books, blogs and period dramas. Drop by for a chance to win Sharon Kay Penman's The Sunne in Splendour.

Historical Tapestry has a new look!

Historical Tapestry just underwent some renovation work and is showing off a new face. Come and check it out if you like historical fiction. There are reviews, guest posts and giveaways...

My Avatar

Several people have asked me about my avatar recently and I thought that maybe I should dedicate a post to this wonderful painting by Ingres that graces my blog and appears everywhere I post. Acyually is is only part of it appears on the blog and it's only a part of the face that appears as my avatar so I thought of posting the entire painting here:

Isn't it lovely? Although I do love the painting - I think Louise de Broglie,  Madame d'Haussonville,  looks intelligent, elegant and I can't help but wonder what was she thinking while posing for the portrait -  I have to confess that the person responsible for choosing a painting that I immediately identified with, is my good friend Alex. Apparently she knows me so well that we never tried an alternative. As soon as I saw this it was love at first sight. And she is also a very talented young lady, by now responsible for the webdesign of several blogs out there.

Louise de Broglie, Comtesse d'Haussonville (1818 - 1882) , comes from an illustrious french family. Great granddaughter of Jacques Necker and granddaughter of Madame de Stael, she marries in 1836 Joseph d'Haussonville, later Comte de Haussonville. Daughter, wife, sister and mother of members of the famous Academie Française, Louise was also of an intellectual nature and left several volumes of historical writings. She was 27 years old when this was painted in 1845.

So now you now whose face is it that appears whenever I post a comment somewhere. :-)

Emma's TV adaptations

Last weekend I planned to watch the TV adaptations of Jane Austen's Emma during the week. There's an Emma discussion going on at Lights Camera History and I wanted to have every detail fresh on my mind before posting there. I have watched the four adaptations done so so but I only wrote reviews of two of them, the 2009 and the 1972 versions. Looking back it seems odd that I never did got to review my favourite adaptation - ITV's 1996 version with Kate Beckinsale in the title role.

Unfortunately life got in the way and I ended up not watching any of them. But that didn't stop me from adding my two cents about them. If possible it convinced me that I really need to watch them all again soon (especially has lots of fans are mentioning that the 2009 version improves with repeated viewing...).

So... if you like Jane Austen and you like period dramas feel free to head on to Lights Camera History and add your two cents too. Today there's a poll about Emma's dream cast and I'm sure there will be divided opinions about some of the actors. I'll see you there!

Giveaway at An Evening at Almacks!

An Evening at Almacks, the traditional regency blog I participate in, is celebrating 1 year today. To mark the date there's a giveaway of some out of print traditional regencies. If you like the genre stop by and enter, you just have to leave a comment telling us your favourite title or if you are new to the genre.

The Young Victoria DVD giveaway

Lights, Camera…History! is celebrating its new home and look with a giveaway. If you want to win a DVD of the movie The Young Victoria with Rupert Friend and Emily Blunt, you just need to visit us and read the rules:

http://lightscamerahistory.com/2009/06/29/new-blog-new-life/

Good luck!

I'm back!!!

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth but I have been without internet access at home and so unable to blog or to visit as many blogs as I normally do. It was quite an experience to constantly feel the lack of information that the internet can provide but I must confess that I also enjoyed having more time to read, watch movies, knit, etc, than what I normally have as I tend to spend quite sometime online everyday.

The result of having more time to do all those things is that I now have a number of reviews to post, I have finished one of the challenges I was involved in and I have watched quite a few movies that I plan to mention here.

I'm back and ready to resume the normal blogging schedule! :-)

Crafty Christmas Presents and a New Blog

I'm giving some presents "made by me" this Christmas and thought of sharing them here. They are for two children so I think I'm safe and they wont visit the blog. It's a wooden box decorated with decoupage and a photo frame painted and with a chicken ornament. It's for a little girl named Maria Inês.




I've have also been doing some sewing with my Mom, some for Christmas presents and some for us. She does a lot more than me though and since she is newly arrived to the internet world and has been exploring crafty blogs I thought of posting the photos of her work online and surprise her with a blog. It's a portuguese blog because it is for her and you can find it here. There will be more photos added as soon as everyone gets their Christmas presents. ;-)

Blog Advent 2008 Tour

It's almost a tradition by now. Once again Marg and Kailana are hosting the Blog Advent 2008 Tour.I plan on checking the blogs everyday to find some Christmas related posts!

I used to have an Advent calendar when I was a child, with a little chocolate inside each day's pocket. I like to have a little something to check each day so this online Advent calendar is a great idea!

2nd Blogiversary

It was 2 years ago that this blog opened! I can't believe it's been two years already! Thank you to everyone who has stopped by and said hello! It's been great fun to share my thoughts on books, food, movies and life with you all!



I toyed with the idea of baking an anniversary cake but I made a cake during the weekend and my mom gave me some this week too so we have been eating lots of sugar and I decided to get just this little cake and put a big candle on top just for the sake of it. But I told L. of my plans and yesterday he came home with a big chocolate cake to help me celebrate.



It's tough to stay thin in this house and I really can't complain because the cake was really good and because he even cooked dinner. We had Prawn Curry and he decided it was an early blogiversary dinner. I think he is starting to think this blogging stuff is fun!




And since this blog is mostly about books and Christmas is around the corner I will give away a Christmas themed book of the ones mentioned below to celebrate this anniversary. Just leave a comment stating which book you would like to have and I'll draw a winner on Nov 30.

An Evening At Almacks

I'm now a part of a new blog devoted solely to traditional regencies. Whether you love the genre, find it so so or you're a newbie who doesn't know what I'm talking about come and visit us at An Evening At Almacks

Index Changes

I decided the index was getting a bit too big for me to manage it so I decided to cut it in half and now you have on the left side bar 2 indexes:

Index of Reads - A to K

Index of Reads - L to Z

I also made them a bit bigger as it seems it wasn't easy to spot the index before. I must say that ever since I started using Goodreads to catalogue my books it became much easier to find any book I want and so I haven't used the blog index as much as in the beginning. In case you wondering what my Goodreads bookshelf looks like you can find it here:

I'm still in the process of creating more shelves by subjects but it really is a wonderful site to keep everything organised!

News From Other Blogs!

There's a book giveaway at Historical Tapestry. Leave a comment or do a guest post and enter to win some Georgette Heyer books.


Anne Stuart is being interviewed at Isn't It Romantic?. Since she is one of my favourite authors I couldn't help stopping there to see what are her plans for future books.

New Look

I've been thinking for a while about giving my blog a new look. I loved the look I had but it wasn't mine, sometimes I would visit other blogs and they would have the same header and background. I was therefore yearning for one of my own.


I also needed some incentive as it is a lot of work for someone who knows next to nothing of HTML. Yesterday, Alex was kind enough to offer her services by working on an image I love (one of the icons mentioned on the previous post) and I accepted the challenge. We ended up using another image and after an afternoon of arduous work in which both Alex and Ana O. tutored me we managed to put it together.

I'm totally in love with this new look! It's totally my type and it's also personal, just mine! Thank you Alex!

If you're curious the image is part of a painting called Madame d'Haussonville by Ingres

Happy Birthday Dear Blog!

Yep, I started blogging on November 20th 2006!! I had no idea then if this was a project I was going to keep up with or if I would be giving it up a few months later. On the contrary, it seems I became addicted and I have to post everyday!