Can't Wait!

Just two more weeks, and then I can order these...



Body Clutter: Love Your Body, Love Yourself
by Marla Cilley & Leanne Ely

Idols of the Heart: Learning to Long for God Alone
by Elyse Fitzpatrick

Thin Again: A Biblical Approach to Food, Eating and Weight Management
by Arthur & Judy Halliday

Her Only Desire: A Novel
by Gaelen Foley


Yay! :-D

Top 10 Books I Couldn't Live Without

I was "tagged", just by reading Deena's blog post, so here goes...

Now, whether I could actually not "live without" these, I don't know... some, definitely, but the others, I might change my mind. ;o)

Top 10 Books I Couldn't Live Without:

1. The Bible - New Living Translation (of course!)
2. Gifted Hands - Dr. Ben Carson (implies that you can do whatever you put your mind to, especially if you have a strong role-model)
3. Writer Ferrets - Richard Bach (inspiration for writing; cute)
4. The Moon Below - Barbara Bickmore (I am woman; hear me roar!)
5. Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell (very out-of-the-box Christianity; makes me LOL)
6. Girl Meets God - Lauren Winner (why faith is important)
7. Get Out of That Pit! - Beth Moore (awesome book about deliverance)
8. Gaelen Foley's "Knight" series (my favorite series so far)
9. Christian Jacq's "Ramses" series (my second-fave series)
10. Inkheart - Cornelia Funke (best book-about-books I've read!)

TAG! You're it! :D

Finished... Wow!

MOSQUITO by Roma Tearne

Finished this book today, and all I can say is WOW! Amazing book, especially as a debut from the author! Read my review HERE.

Highly recommended!

Currently Reading...

After months of not liking the offerings put out by HarperCollins Canada's First Look program, I finally found something that sounds good... and I got picked to review it! :o)


MOSQUITO by Roma Tearne

Book Description:
A classic novel of love and war—a lush, cinematic story in the tradition of The English Patient

Set adrift by the recent death of his wife, Theo Samarajeeva abandons his comfortable writer’s life in London and returns to Sri Lanka, his homeland. Within the protective confines of his beach house outside of Colombo, and under the watchful eye of his loyal servant, Sugi, he attempts to finish his latest novel, though the threat of violence lurks just beyond his door.

Meanwhile, Nulani, a mysterious and artistically talented young woman, installs herself on Theo’s veranda and begins to paint him, capturing in her vivid portraits a man in search of redemption.

As an unorthodox and tenuous love blossoms between this unlikely pair, Sri Lanka’s simmering civil war creeps ominously close, threatening to destroy their fragile happiness. Just when Nulani feels, for the first time in years, that she is loved, and Theo begins to believe he has a future, the terror of war spreads across the nation, converting ordinary citizens into enemy combatants and outsiders into tools for blackmail. In this climate of chaos, both Nulani and Theo must call upon their memories and their art to survive.

Set against the tableau of the Sri Lankan conflict between the Tamils and the Singhalese, and sweeping from Sri Lanka to Venice and London, Mosquito is an emotionally charged, unforgettable story that illuminates the power of love and memory.

Author and artist Roma Tearne, who fled Sri Lanka when she was young, unflinchingly captures the menace of war while at the same time imbuing her spellbinding work with immense humanity and moral vision.

Spring Reading Thing Challenge

Like I need another Challenge, but I can't help myself. I stumbled upon Katrina's SPRING READING THING Challenge today, completely by accident, while blog-hopping. So, I'm thinking it's "meant to be" that I join! LOL



ABOUT THE CHALLENGE:

Have you fallen behind on your To-Be-Read list? Do you have five books that you've started but haven't finished? Have you been meaning to get around to that great book your friend recommended but just haven't done it yet? Do you love to read and to find out what everyone else is reading? Then this challenge is for you!

Some of you may be wondering why I'm choosing to join a TBR challenge when I already have one of my own... well, I'm behind on my own challenge! LOL. So, I need a good kick-in-the-pants to get me going again. And, if you read my earlier post about how much I'd like to (or need to) get read this year, you'll understand why I think I *need* this challenge! ;o)

The SPRING READING THING Challenge goes from March 21st - June 21st of this year.

MY LIST:

• Believing God by Beth Moore


• Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling


• Envy by Sandra Brown


• Persuasion by Jane Austen


• Body Clutter by Marla Cilley & Leanne Ely


• Idols of the Heart by Elyse Fitzpatrick


• Making Peace with Your Mom by H. Norman Wright (review)


• _________________ (Review Book)


• Premonition by Randall Ingermanson


• Love Beyond Reason by John Ortberg


• African Ice by Jeff Buick


• Thin Again by Arthur & Judy Halliday

Most of these are from my TBR Challenge list. The "Believing God" one is a book I'm reading & studying with another online group. I've left one spot blank, as I'll need to read another review book, but want to be free to pick it when the time comes (I'm a 'mood reader', most of the time). And then, a few are books that will be brand new, but that I've been wanting to read for a while now -- I'll be so excited to get them, I just KNOW I'm gonna wanna read them immediately! ;o) Oh, and I also put a couple on there that I bought at Christmas, or shortly thereafter, that've been causing me guilt for not having read them, yet, after I pined for them for a long time! LOL


Wanna join me?

Chunkster Challenge

Nancy, over at Bookfoolery & Babble, is doing a "Chunkster Challenge".

Here are the official "Rules":

1. Time period: The Chunkster Challenge will run from
Jan. 1, 2007 - June 30, 2007.

2. How fat must a "chunkster" be? Anything that makes you say, "Whoa! That's freakin' intimidating!" But, my personal opinion of what constitutes a chunkster is anything over 400 pages.

3. How many books do I have to read? Here, again, I'm going to be extremely flexible because some of you have busier lives, read slower, or are just too terrified to shoot too high and I think that's fine. If you only want to challenge yourself to read one, so be it. So, the official answer is however many you choose.

4. Do I have to choose specific titles? You can either choose specific titles that you want to read during the 6-month challenge OR you may list a pile from which you hope to read a specific number. Please include what you intend to read in a post at your blog site, when you sign up.

5. Why are you making this so ridiculously flexible...? Because I'm not very good at choosing titles and sticking to them. Let's face it, people, Bookfool is one flighty chick. So, I'm going to have a pile from which I plan to attempt a certain number, myself.

6. Will there be prizes? ... I plan to hold two drawings - the first will be for a tote bag to carry your chunksters around, on January 8, and the final drawing at completion of the challenge will probably be really cool but I'm not sure what's in it, yet....

Crazy-woman that I am (not like I don't already have *enough* challenges on my plate!), I'm going to be taking on this challenge, too! :o) And, my LIST of books is as follows:

1. Envy by Sandra Brown (490p.)


2. Passage by Connie Willis (674p.)


3. The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly (756p.)


4. Middlemarch by George Eliot (838p.)

I probably will pick only 2 of these titles, as I don't think I can manage 4. I've got two other challenges on the go, plus reviewing books (which I'm behind on, already), plus my f2f book club picks. SO, 2 should be plenty. "Middlemarch" will probably make the list, too, as it's already on my "Classics Challenge" list, and my "2007 TBR Challenge" list. ;o)

Classics Challenge

I've joined another book challenge. Thanks to my friend, Lisa at Bluestalking Reader, I am now signed up for Booklogged's Classics Challenge, which will take place in January - February 2007.

The goal is to read 5 Classics during these 2 months.

Here is what I'm going to attempt to read:

1. Middlemarch by George Eliot
2. The Aspern Papers by Henry James (done: 01/17/07)
3. Persuasion by Jane Austen
4. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
5. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

(See the books - my library)

Yes, it's shameful to admit -- I've not read ANY of these, yet! But, this is just the kind of kick-in-the-butt motivation I need to do so! :o)

Note: Originally, I'd planned to read "Babel Tower" (or "Possession") by A.S. Byatt. But, today I watched the movie, "The Lake House" (starring Keanu Reaves & Sandra Bullock), and I'm convinced I need to read Jane Austen's "Persuasion". Hence the change in my list. ;o)

Almost Overwhelmed With Reading!

I am almost overwhelmed by the amount of reading I'm telling myself to do this year... or, that I've *challenged* myself to take on. LOL

Here are the books that I desperately want/need to get to in the next 12 months:

REVIEW BOOKS "TBR" (to be read):

1. Saving Alice - David Lewis


2. The Secret Life of Becky Miller - Sharon Hinck


3. Mozart's Sister - Nancy Moser


4. How to Make Peace With Your Mom - H. Norman Wright


5. River Rising - Athol Dickson


6. Letter Perfect - Cathy Marie Hake


7. A Woman's Place - Lynn Austin


8. Generation NeXt Parenting - Tricia Goyer


9. Across the China Sky - C. Hope Flinchbaugh


10. Jesus: An Intimate Portrait... - Leith Anderson


11. Reclaiming Nick - Susan May Warren


12. Things We Once Held Dear - Ann Tatlock


13. Freefall - Kristen Heitzmann

F2F BOOK CLUB "TBR":

• FEBRUARY: Moloka'i by Alan Brennert


• MARCH: The Birth House by Ami McKay
*DNF*

• APRIL: [--not reading this month's selection--]


• MAY: Abide With Me by Elizabeth Strout


• JUNE: Snow Flower & the Secret Fan by Lisa See

2007 TBR CHALLENGE:

ORIGINAL 12:

1. Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone (book 1) - J.K. Rowling


2. Middlemarch - George Eliot [C, CH]


3. The Wise Woman - Christian Jacq


4. Passage - Connie Willis


5. The Surgeon - Tess Gerritsen


6. Premonition - Randall Ingermanson


7. Shadow Baby - Ami Mcghee


8. Envy - Sandra Brown [CH]


9. Bethesda - Paul A. Nigro


10. The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde


11. Deja Dead - Kathy Reichs


12. The Tea Rose - Jennifer Donnelly

** C means this is also on my Classics Challenge list.
** CH means this is also on my Chunkster Challenge list.

ALTERNATES:

• Messy Spirituality - Mike Yaconelli


• Inkspell - Cornelia Funke


• How To Be Good - Nick Hornby


• Flabbergasted - Ray Blackston


• The Rule of Four - Caldwell/Thomason


• Deep In the Valley - Robyn Carr


• Dying Declaration - Randy Singer


• Double Vision - Randall Ingermanson


• The #1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith


• If I Had You - Deborah Bedford


• Her Daughter's Eyes - Jessica Barksdale Inclan


• The Codex - Douglas Preston


• Preparing Your Son for Every Man's Battle - Stephen Arterburn


• The Empress File - John Sandford

** NOTE: I had 24 Alternates here, but I removed the ones that were *extra* because our Challenge group has decided to allow only 15 Alternates. ;o)

So, as you can see, that's a LOT of reading! Mind you, the "Alternates" list for the TBR Challenge is a list of "possibilities"... I don't presume to get them ALL read this year. They're there in case one of my original 12 doesn't suit my tastes at the time that I pick it up. I could also read my Alternates on top of my original 12 -- as sort of "extra credit" (even though they don't count for the Challenge prizes -- but, I'm not "eligible" for the prizes, anyhow! :-P).

Lastly, below, are my books for the Classics Challenge:

1. The Aspern Papers - Henry James


2. Middlemarch - George Eliot


3. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle


4. Persuasion - Jane Austen


5. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

I finished "The Aspern Papers" last night. So, one down, and four more to go!

I'm really anxious, though, to get to my Review books. They've been put on hold since before Christmas, and I feel really badly about that. They need to get read -- they're basically "top priority" to me, right now. As soon as I'm finished reading "Middlemarch" (and I'm just over halfway through now), I'll be starting in on those Review books!

Why This Blog Exists

I know you're thinking I'm crazy. You're probably also wondering WHY I need another book blog, when I already have several. ;o)

Well, most of the time my book blogs end up including stuff about my life, in general, too. And I no longer want that. I want a blog that's for books ONLY!... hence the title: "SOLELY BOOKS".

SO, welcome here, and Happy Reading! :D

** Please Note: **

Several of my posts here, at first,
will be ones that I copied over
from my old blog.
Thank you!