jamie ann

A couple weeks ago, I hosted book club.

It wasn’t any old book club though. It was probably the coolest book club ever. We’re talking classic books, e-readers, champagne bars and simultaneous twitter parties in three cities.

I KNOW, RIGHT?

Let me back up.

In July, my guests and I were all sent a DSi XL and the “game” 100 Classic Books. We had a month to read before we would all meet to discuss our book, which was Pride and Prejudice. The coolest part was that there were book club meetings simultaneously happening in Boston and St. Louis. We all could keep up with each other by interacting via Twitter since it was streamed on a screen for us.

RIGHT?

My book club took place at Pops For Champagne, a champagne bar here in Chicago, which couldn’t have been a better choice for my bubble loving friends and I. We pulled out our DSi XLs, ate delicious little cheesecake creme brulee things and discussed our book. There was talk of helicopter parents, if Mr. Collins was gay or not, feminism or just strong female characters and more. The only thing that was missing was Colin Firth.

I’ve been pretty anti e-reader for the longest. For someone who really loves technology and her gadgets, nothing can beat an actual book with pages. I love the smell of new books, turning pages and I love being the first one to make a crease in the spine. I love that older books are not only are stories, but are a story themselves with where they have been, who owned them before, notes in margins and things forgotten about in the pages before they were passed on.

BUT.

I can definitely see their appeal now. I have 100 classic books in my handbag right now, from Austen to Shakespeare to Dickens to Bronte. I mean, that’s just really neat. It’s especially awesome for travel (I took it with me to NYC for the plane).  I kind of wish I could download regular books on it too and not need software for them. I’ll always be a book girl, but this is a really great option to have too. I’m think I’m going to start Sense and Sensibility soon.

So since we’re discussing the classics, which is your favorite? Little Women has always been one of my favorite books, classic or not.

Disclosure: Brand About Town and Nintendo provided my guests and I with DSi XLs and software and my book club at Pops was courtesy of them so back up off me, FTC.

I’ve had dogs in my life ever since I was born. 26 years and there has always been a pup around dolling out kisses and begging for belly rubs. I honestly really couldn’t picture my life without a furry little friend by my side.

When my Princess was dying (the dog I’ve had since almost as far back as I can remember), I got Edie. Not because I was trying to replace Princess, because that’s just not possible, but because I wanted her to show the new pup the ropes and so she could meet who would be taking care of me after she was gone.

Since then Edie has been my guardian and best friend. She’s always on the lookout, is terribly sad when I leave, ecstatic to see me when I return, a complete and total brat, but always knows when I need some puppy love. She’s my little shadow and I’m pretty much always tripping over her. Pretty much the exact same way that Princess use to be. She did good showing the new pup how to be.

So when Allie Larkin (bloggy friend!) asked if I wanted to check out her book STAY, I couldn’t say no. Like me, Allie loves her pups to death and in her book, one of the main characters is a big, huge Slovakian dog named Joe. Savannah met Joe after he was accidentally ordered online after an alcohol fueled Rin Tin Tin marathon.

(hi, I could totally see myself doing that. Thank goodness, one bossy pup is all I can handle solo)

And well, Joe turned out to be just what Van needed.

I don’t want to give it all away because I really would love if you all picked up STAY for yourselves. I promise, it won’t disappoint. I laughed. I cried. I really read the whole thing one afternoon while laying out getting a tan. It’s a witty, fabulous novel with characters – both human and canine – that you will fall in love with. The relationship between a girl and her dog is a special one and STAY kind of hits it on the head.

Friday evening I’ll be hanging out with Allie at her reading and signing in Oak Brook. If you’re in Chicago, come by and say hi.

I know another one, right? Well it’s just that awesome and now you have even more chances to win a copy of your own and trust me you want one.

We’ve all had our moments where we have to wake up and check our outbox to see what exactly happened last night. I may or may not have had one of those nights after my whirlwind 26 hour Vegas trip…

But that is besides the point.

Texts From Last Night is probably one of the best and most hilarious ideas ever. Bored? Bummed? Has it been way too long of a day? Need a pick me up to send a friend? Texts From Last Night: All The Texts No One Remembers Sending will be your best friend. Not to mention when you are spending way too long doing your hair and someone is waiting for and pretty close to leaving without you, this right here can be the perfect coffee table book that distracts them!

If that hasn’t convinced you that this book is awesome here are a few of my favorites from the book that I got to preview:

(510): The party tonight has no theme but I’ve decided to go as a home wrecker.

(410): my mouth tastes like poor choices

(917): I’m once again drinking at eight am on a Sunday in my tutu. This garment is literally my best purchase ever.

(206): how the fuck does easy mac keep making itself at 3am when i’m wasted? what is this phenomenon?

Right? RIGHT?!

Okay, so right about now I’m sure you’re wishing you had a copy of your own and luckily for you, I’m giving a copy away to one reader!

To enter:

• Go to textsfromlastnight.com and pick one of your favorite texts.
• Comment back here with it.
• Tweet or blog about this contest for extra entries and comment again with the link.
• Do this by Monday February 1st and you’re in!

I’ve been kind of slacking on my book game lately but I’ve been making up for it the past few weeks.

What is better than Jane Austen and zombies?

NOTHING.

Go read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Since I’m up to date on all the Sookie Stackhouse books, I decided to give Charlaine Harris’ other series a try. I picked up the first three (and only ones so far) books of the Harper Connelly series. They are about a woman, Harper, who was struck by lightning and now can find dead bodies. And this is what she makes her living from. She travels with her stepbrother. In all honestly, these are pretty predictable everything from the budding relationship between the two (lots of “we were just RAISED as brother and sister”) to the mysteries. Despite the semi-incestuousness (I mean, really, your stepbrother?) and obvious story lines, I might pick up the next when it comes out at the end of October. You know how I am when it comes to finding out how things end…I NEED TO KNOW.

And then for a dose of chick lit, we have some of Emily Giffin’s books: Something Borrowed and Something Blue. I really enjoyed both of them. I’m a fan of her, I think. But we will see how the next two go. I just started Baby Proof today. I have Love the One You’re With on deck.

ETA: I can’t believe I forgot to add this one: I read Twenties Girl yesterday by Sophie Kinsella! It was a quick fun read. I loved that there was a 1920s theme to it. I was little thrown off to the fact that there was a ghost involved but in the end, I really liked it. I absolutely recommend it, it was hard to put down (obviously, since I read it in a day!). I think that might be the first Sophie Kinsella book I’ve ever read. I’ll definitely have to check out some more!

I’m sure there is a few more I’ve read in the mix. I just can’t think of them. The library should keep track of what books I’ve checked out online for me. It would make things so much easier!

Anyone reading anything good right now?

Last month I was asked to participate in the Donors Choose Social Media Challenge.

DonorsChoose.org grew out of a high school in the Bronx where teachers saw their students going without the materials needed to learn.  Our website provides an easy way for everyday people to address this problem. Public school teachers post project requests that range from a $100 classroom library, to a $600 digital projector, to a $1,000 trip to the zoo. People like you can choose which projects to fund and then get photos and thank-you letters from the classroom.

Very cool, isn’t it?

Well, BlogHer asked me to choose a couple projects for the Chicago area. I picked two I’m really excited about and would love to see funded.

The first being for a class of first graders, their teacher wants to give them books as Christmas presents to encourage reading in the home as well as in school. These children might not get presents otherwise. She is giving one of my staple books for a child’s library, Where the Wild Things Are. When it comes to gifts for kids, I always give books (seriously, I have a list of favorites and pick from it for each holiday!). Reading was such a huge part of my childhood and I think everyone should have the opportunity to exposed to books and learn to love them. Read more about Mrs. S’s project.

The second project I chose is for an 8th grade classroom at a school where most students are low income and minorities. I remember when I was in 8th grade, I was probably in that preteen angsty stage where I just didn’t care about anything, let alone reading. So in order to encourage these students to read, the teacher is going with short stories. He hopes to get two class sets of classic stories and fairy tales. Read more about Mr. W’s project.

I’m writing this post to ask for you, my awesome readers, to rally together and help get these projects funded. After all, it is a challenge and I know my 20 Something Bloggers are up for a challenge!

Or if you’re not too into these two Chicago projects, check out the rest from all over the country. Every dollar helps, no matter who it is going to.

But if we get the two projects funded, I’ll do something really awesome for you guys. I don’t know what yet but I’m open to suggestions.

Let’s make this happen!

It’s been awhile since my last book post so I figured I was about due for another (here are the first two).

Let’s see, I finished all of the Charlaine Harris books that have been released so far. And I can’t get enough. Especially now that True Blood only has like two episodes left. Looks like someone might be checking out those books again!

After talking with Suz at BlogHer, she convinced me to try some more Jennifer Weiner novels. And I did and really liked them. I read Certain Girls, Little Earthquakes and Goodnight Nobody. I really liked Little Earthquakes but Goodnight Nobody got a little too mystery novelish for me. I own and loved Good in Bed so I had to read the follow up, Certain Girls. And OF COURSE, the only copy in all of the Chicago Public Library was large print. So that was a little awkward haha

A few people recommended Sarah Dessen in my last few book posts and Miss Zoot has been raving as well, so I picked up a few of those. I didn’t realize that two of her books are what How To Deal was based off of. And I adore Mandy Moore and this movie so that was pretty neat. I read Just Listen and This Lullaby. Both good, quick reads. I’ll definitely be picking up a few more of her novels.

And lastly, I picked up Julie and Julia because of all this hype about the book and the movie. Basically? I HATED IT. I couldn’t finish it and I hate not finishing books. I got about half way through and just had to stop. I couldn’t force myself to do anymore. Plus, Julie called her blog readers, “bleaders”. And for some reason that just irritated me like no other. Julie was just whiny and annoying. But I hear the movie is much better and it’s all because of Julia. I mean, hello, Meryl Streep is amazing. I doubt she can do wrong!

Quick recap: more Eric, large print sucks, love Sarah Dessen and Julie and Julia blows.

What’s everyone else reading right now?

Here’s the thing about me. Once I get started with something, I need to know how it ends. Particularly with books and shows. I hate waiting to find out what happens.

This usually causes me to hole up in my room away from the world and internets until I finish whatever it is. Especially now that I’m looking for work, I spend a lot of time home sending resumes and emails. But basically, I have a lot of free time so get sucked into a new series or show.

You all may remember my reluctance to start reading Twilight then I read them all in three days. Because I just needed to know OMG did they finally just do it already?! Then I proceeded to push those books on many of you and got you all hooked.

Then there was Desperate Housewives. I know, kind of random, right? But you see, when you are unemployed such as myself and there is a show you have never seen that is on every day for two hours, it’s hard not to get sucked in. Plus, it’s on Lifetime and we all know my weakness when it comes to that goddamn channel. But yeah, so there was an episode last week that ends all, “5 years later…” and then the next day instead of picking up there, the whole series STARTS ALL OVER. And I’m like dude, where is Mike? And why does Gaby have two kids? And totally not surprised the twins are practically little felons.

I JUST NEED ANSWERS.

And don’t even get me started on the Sookie Stackhouse books*. Just don’t. These are the books that True Blood is based off of. Yeah, I flew through all of 8 or 9 of those in like a week and a half. Now I’m done with all the books that are out and I’m all WTF?! NEED MORE ERIC! and everyone is like “oh, the next book is out in October, it’s cool”.

OCTOBER? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? THAT IS LIKE 3 MILLION YEARS AWAY AND DEFINITELY NOT COOL. WANT ERIC NOW.

After I read the books I decided I needed to see the show. I’ve caught a few episodes randomly but I needed to see everything from the beginning. Then I downloaded season one and finished in like a day and a half. Right now, I’m downloading episodes 3 and 4 of season two and I’m practically staring at Azureus watching the seconds pass because it is JUST NOT MOVING FAST ENOUGH.

So yeah, I might have a touch of an addictive personality. But I just can’t help it, I love a story and knowing what happens.

I’m now looking for what I will start once I finish True Blood. I think it will be How I Met Your Mother.

* Read them. Do it. Charlaine Harris. Trust me, you’ll love me and hate me for recommending them but just do it.

(can someone buy me these bookshelves?)

I think it’s time for another installment about my bookish whims. I’ve been a little bit busier since my last post about books so I haven’t read quite as much as I would like.

First off, I returned the second and third Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books without reading them. I got a couple chapters through book two but I just wasn’t feeling it. At least I gave them a shot.

Same goes for the Heather Wells series by Meg Cabot. I knocked out the first one but was very unsure why a book about a fallen broke pop star turned dorm RA turned mystery solver was called Size 12 is Not Fat. So off the other two went unread back to the library.

Of course, with Harry Potter coming out there was definitely some Harry Potter in the past few weeks. This time it was the Deathly Hallows.

Then I felt I needed something light with no murdering Potions professors and pining girls who are always in love with the wrong guy. So I went with a YA book of mine by Noel Streatfeild. Ballet Shoes is a favorite from when I was younger but I couldn’t find it so I went with the follow up, Theater Shoes.

And what do you pick up after a YA book about dancing and theater?

Obviously, vampires.

In the past three days, I’ve knocked out the first three Sookie Stackhouse books: Dead Until Dark, Living Dead in Dallas and Club Dead. I suspect I’ll be done with the next by tomorrow. These are a little more grown up than Twilight. Sex, murder and synthetic blood. Definitely no “vegetarian” vampires here.

I’ve got some Jane Green novels on deck after I wrap this one up. I don’t think I’ll get my hands on the rest of the Stackhouse novels for a bit because of stupid waiting lists at the library.

As always, I’d love your thoughts if you’ve read any of these books and recommendations are always welcome! So what are you reading right now?

(no, this is not my bookshelf but damn, I wish it were)

I know I’ve mentioned the library a lot lately and that I’m flying through books. This is what happens when I have a lot of time on my hands. I read read read.

Well I’m hoping soon that I land a job and won’t have this much time on my hands. Because I am SO ready to get my hands on a new project and dig in. I would like more of a challenge than deciding what stack of books to hit next.

But for the moment, especially while I’m going through 3-4 books a week and really enjoying it, I thought I’d start posting what I read once a week. Also because so many of you have been asking what I’ve been reading too!

In the past two weeks, I’ve done mainly chick lit which is probably why I’ve been going through them so fast. So here we go by author –

Jennifer Weiner

• In Her Shoes

Meg Cabot

• The Queen of Babble
• The Queen of Babble in the Big City
• The Queen of Babble Gets Hitched
• She Went All The Way
• Every Boy’s Got One

Janet Evanovich

• One For the Money

Jen Lancaster

• Bitter is the New Black (reread)

I really loved Meg Cabot’s The Queen of Babble series. Some great quick reads right there. I’m waiting for one more book in her Heather Wells series to come in and then I’ll start those. I wasn’t particularly impressed with She Went All the Way and Every Boy’s Got one. But that’s chick lit for you, it’s a hit or miss.

As for the Janet Evanovich book, I don’t think I’m feeling her Stephanie Plum series. I think it’s the way she writes. It was very hard for me to get into but since I’ve heard so many good things, I picked up the next two in the series. We’ll see how book two goes and if I want to continue.

I’m sure I’ll have more to report back on next week in the book department.

As always if you have suggestions, let me know. As you can see, I just can’t get enough reading material right now!

I have a confession to make.

I forgot to return something to the library and racked up some fines. I did this like two years ago and sort of forgot about it. Yeah, I’m that person who takes things out and forgets about them and ruins shit for everyone.

What can I say? I’m a bookstore girl.  I like the newness. No creases the spine. Pages sticking together because no one has turned them yet. The bookish smell. I’m a big fan of books on my bookshelf that I can keep and not have to give back.

I’m stingy like that.

But I’ve think I have learned my lesson. Now that I’m a broke ass, I can’t feed my book buying addiction. I’ll be hitting up the library and checking out (AND RETURNING!) books like normal human beings. Maybe even movies! Did you know the library has movies? I always assumed they only had older movies and not current ones. Why? I don’t know but I did.

(You can stop laughing now)

Anyway, I made a last minute trip to the library to bribe them pay them off so I can get my book borrowing privileges back. The thing is, I wasn’t prepared. There are always tons of books I want but if I don’t have a list with me, my mind goes blank. Because I can’t think of anything off the top of my head, I turn to Twitter.

Twitter to the rescue. Barely a minute passes and I see these start pouring in my reply page. There were more but my screen cap could only be so big.

This right here is exactly why I love Twitter.

I love the real time aspect of it. I post a question and seconds later, I have responses. Should I have posted about it on here, I would have to wait until the post hit the feed readers before I would get responses. Instead, 20 minutes later after browsing the shelves now knowing what I was looking for, I walked out with four books by authors that were suggested.

Twitter: it’s like magic.

(Twitter HQ, I get credit if you copyright that tag line. Share some of the millions love.)

Now, I need two things from you all: 1) follow me on Twitter – @jamielovely and 2) leave some book suggestions in the comments.