One party, two trips to the cinema and three chocolate eggs
The Easter break is over and it’s back to work we go. We have been down in London this weekend for my nieces 7th birthday party so we have had a weekend chock full of bike rides, games and cholcoate eggs. We took them to see How to Train Your Dragon in 3D at the cinema and it was brilliant! I am in love with Toothless the dragon.
We also went to see Clash of the Titans (again in 3D) but I can’t say I was overly enthralled. I’m not a massive fan of fighting films but I was really interested in the greek mythology of Zeus and Hades etc. Is it just me or is this common to book geeks: the thirst for knowledge to find out more about what you have seen or read? As soon as we got home I was googling all their names!
Author Interview – I am SO excited!
When I got an email yesterday confirming my interview with this author I nearly screamed the house down! It’s only Mary Higgins Clark!!! I am such a HUGE fan of this lady (if you haven’t noticed yet 
) – she is my Queen of the Comfort Read. She has 44 published books in the crime / mystery genre and I am rather quickly working my way through them all. Here are some of my reviews. I hope you will join me to see what one of my favourite authors has to say shortly.
Cheerleaders still needed
Roll up, roll up! We still need cheerleaders for this weekends 24-hour Read-a-thon. All you need to do is arm yourself with a pair of virtual pompoms and create some noise and excitement about this weekend.
Is anyone going to be joining in the Read-a-thon this weekend? What are you planning to read? I haven’t narrowed my choices down yet – it takes a lot of careful preparation (a little like going on holiday) deciding on the right book.
What I have learnt from reading this week
I have learnt that as many as 1 in 23 people could have synaethesia.
From Wikipedia: “In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme → color synesthesia or color-graphemic synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored, while in ordinal linguistic personification, numbers, days of the week and months of the year evoke personalities. In spatial-sequence, or number form synesthesia, numbers, months of the year, and/or days of the week elicit precise locations in space (for example, 1980 may be “farther away” than 1990), or may have a (three-dimensional) view of a year as a map (clockwise or counterclockwise. Yet another recently identified type, visual motion → sound synesthesia, involves hearing sounds in response to visual motion and flicker.Over 60 types of synesthesia have been reported by people, but only a fraction have been evaluated by scientific research. Even within one type, synesthetic perceptions vary in intensity and people vary in awareness of their synesthetic perceptions.”
I think I may have a form of the number-form synsthesia as I see days and years and dates in a curve and a loop and stretching away from me. Does anyone else do this?
(from blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris)
In my mailbox this week
These are some books that I found in a garden centre near where I live – they sell them at £1.00 each and they are all brand new! I am going back there this week to see what else I can find. I got:
The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing
The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
The Yiddish Policemans Union by Michael Chabon
The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
She by H. Rider Haggard (I swapped this one on Readitswapit)
These are books that I have recieved from either the author or the publisher. Thank you to Oxford University Press for the 3 Victorian classics (which I can hardly wait to dive into) and to Keren David (author of When I Was Joe) for the above copies.
Zofloya, or The Moor by Charlotte Dacre
Aurora Floyd by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
The Doctor’s Wife by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
When I Was Joe by Keren David
Anyone else get any intersting books this week?
AHHHHHH! This is me screaming my joy at your upcoming author interview!! She must have seen your gushing discussion from the other week? (How does one go about getting an author interview, anyway? I’ve never done it.)
I’d love to see How to Train Your Dragon, it looks like fun. I never get to go to the movies these days though.
I’m reading The Yiddish Policeman’s Union at the moment, it’s really good. Not sure I love it as much as his others but he has such gorgeous writing.
I love those Oxford World Classics editions! They’re so lovely. I can’t get hold of them as often as I’d like though. I’ve never heard of Braddon. Or Dacre. I’m so ignorant!
I’m interested in reading something by Doris Lessing, but I’m not sure where’s best to start. Any suggestions?
(ooh, I’m signing on here with my new blog!)
Shannon, love your new blog! (I’ve just updated my blogroll). It looks great and the giraffes are so cute on that bookshelf.
I know, can you believe it??? Mary Higgins Clark!!!! I am beyond excited!
I haven’t read anything else by Chabon yet but a friend of mine on GR loves him so I though it was high time, the same with Doris Lessing. They are authors I know I should have read but haven’t and you can’t turn them away for a £1.00!
Thanks Boof! It’s not as fancy as yours but I wouldn’t know how to do that!
I love Chabon so much I think I said on a review I wanted to have his baby. I know, classy right? The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is still one of the best books I’ve read – really must re-read it!
A pound!! (or as they say on A Fish Called Wanda: “A p-p-p-pound! He’s gonna kill her!”) You really do find the best deals!
I read a book not long ago where the main character had synaesthesia, called Still Waters, by Nigel McCrery. It’s a series, I think, so there is at least one more with the same character. I was really intrigued by the whole thing.
It is intruiging, isn’t it Heather? I will have to look up the book you mentioned now too.
That’s so exciting, I can’t wait for the Mary Higgins interview!
I LOVE Doris Lessing, I’m actually reading a collection of her short stories right now and they are amazing…
going to see the Clash of the Titans tomorrow and I’m pretty excited for I am a Greek Mythology geek, they always have the most interesting stories- all full of drama
Hi Boof!
Hooray on landing a huge interview! I cant wait to see what you ask her!
I own Yiddesh Policemen, we should try for a readalong when our to-be-read review piles simmer down… huh?
I did get two great books in the mail today from a fellow goodreadian. She sent me Galapagos from Kurt Vonngeut (sp) and Fluke from Christsopher Moore.
Love getting books in the mail!!!
Lori, that sounds like a plan. I can remember Logan raving about Yiddish Policemen, that’s why I picked it up. Let’s read it when our ARC pile diminishes a little
HOLY CANOLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is NUTS. As someone who enjoys interviewing published authors, I know how tough, and almost impossible, it is for a blogger to get an interview with a BIG TIME author!!!!! I am so excited about this interview! Can’t wait to read it!!!
I know! I am honestly over the moon about this!
Congratulations on the interview! That’s so exciting
And oooh, Aurora Floyd! I’m dying to get my hands on that as well. And The Doctor’s Wife.