The Best Farm to Live On?

I have been doing a lot of driving around the Midwest over the last two weeks on my way to interviews, which I may or may not blog about soon.  My favorite thing to look at while driving (ooh wait, sorry, SECOND favorite after lakes!) is wind farms!  They are so pretty!  I know some people complain about them and actually think they are ugly because they seem so strange in the farmland, but I think they’re great.

Did you know that Iowa is #2 for having the most wind power installed in a state?  I haven’t seen any wind farms in Iowa; I think maybe they’re in the N/NW part of the state.

Wind farm in Iowa. Pretty, no?

Wind farm in Hancock County

I did see wind farms in Illinois on my trip.  Illinois is ranked #10 in most wind power.

Wind farm in Illinois

Another wind farm in IL

What a good, CLEAN way to get energy!  Way to go, Midwest!  It’s nice to know your boring flatness is good for something.  :)

- Jill

I Now Pronounce You…Mr. and Mrs. Rainbow Brite

Since I have been hearing a lot about weddings lately (congrats Jessi and Amber!!!) I thought this post about nerdy wedding cake toppers was very interesting.  I especially like the Stargate one and the incredibly dapper Frankenstein and his bride.  It got me thinking about who I might choose to represent me on top of my wedding cake.

My first choice would probably be Rainbow Brite.  She is spunky, cute, and her colorful wardrobe would liven up any cake.  She also has a belt that can produce rainbows and a very snarky horse……what more could you want?  But the problem is that there isn’t a “Mr. Rainbow Brite.”  There is Chris, the fellow saver-of-the-world that she meets in the classic movie Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer.  They meet, they fight, they hate each other…..which totally means they are in LOVE!  But, I just don’t think he is important enough to warrant a spot atop the cake.

I think what I will have to do is hope that my future husband will be just as nerdy as I am and he will have his own ideas for a cake topper to represent him.  I would definitely approve of a Storm Trooper, a Lord of the Rings character, or any 80s cartoon icon.  This blending of tastes option is represented nicely in the picture of the Transformer getting married to Smurfette.

Opposites Attract

But, I could go a totally different route and have my second choice……….Ron and Hermione.  That would actually be pretty awesome.  Very recognizable and quite dear to my heart.  And it would definitely be Ron and Hermione and NOT Harry and Ginny, since most of you know how I feel about Ginny (shudder).

So, now that I have rambled……who would you pick to be on top of your wedding cake???

Jen

New (To Me At Least) Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince Posters

Meg Cabot recently showed me some new HP6 posters.  Maybe you’ve seen them before, but I had not.  I have mixed feelings.

This one = cool

Hello, new love interest I've been predicting since Book 2! (Ok, to be fair, who didn't call that?)

This is so not how I imagined Lavender. She reminds me too much of Moaning Myrtle

Oh, Luna...

I think Hermione's angst looks are pretty good. The scene with the birds should be awesome.

Ominous...

Can someone PLEASE tell me who besides Ron is in this? I feel so stupid!

Only a few more weeks!!

- Jill

Community

Do you pay attention to the fall tv schedules when they’re released?  I usually don’t, but one new show caught my eye.  It stars Joel McHale!  If you don’t know who he is, you probably aren’t getting enough E!  He hosts The Soup on Friday nights.  I had no idea he actually acted.  Here’s what the show called Community is about, according to NBC’s website:

It’s been said that community college is a “halfway school” for losers, a self esteem workshop for newly divorced housewives, and a place where old people go to keep their minds active as they circle the drain of eternity. Well, at Greendale Community College…that’s all true. Community focuses on a band of misfits, at the center of which is a fast-talkin’ lawyer whose degree has been revoked (Joel McHale, The Soup). They form a study group and, in “Breakfast Club” fashion, end up learning a lot more about themselves than they do about their course work.

Interesting, right?  Now check out the video:

Notice anyone else familiar?  Chevy Chase & John Oliver???  What are you guys all doing in the same show?

AND if all that isn’t enough to make you interested, try this…it’s from the directors of Arrested Development!  Hooray!  Anything related to ArrDev is good enough for me.  I will be watching.  (Plus, it doesn’t hurt that it’s part of NBC’s Thursday night lineup.)  :)

- Jill

New Moon Cover…Aw Crap, I’ll Have To Buy It Again

Even though I already own New Moon, looks like I’m going to have to buy another copy just so I can look at the cover everyday.  Whilst looking at it, I will use my fingers to cover up Bella (who looks like she is trying to cry on her own shoulder) and the terrifying Edward Cullen “I’m Stalking You” Moon.

Or I guess I could just print off the picture and hang it on my wall.

Are those zombies in the background???

Jen

Tim Burton Knows Just How To Intrigue And Terrify Me

I will start this out by saying that I love Johnny Depp.  I especially love Johnny Depp when he is working with Tim Burton.  I enjoy Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Their latest undertaking is Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

Now Alice in Wonderland is a very trippy book in itself.  Have you actually read it???  Lewis Carroll was one crazy dude (who may or may not have had impure thoughts about the ‘real’ little Alice).  Well, I think, based on the photos that were just released, Tim Burton is not going to shy away from the weird parts.  There probably won’t be any happily singing flowers in this version…..if there are flowers, they will be shreiking in terror.

First of all, Johnny Depp looks exactly like Elijah Wood.  For some reason this is really really scary to me.

Johnn Depp as the Mad Hatter

Then there is the image that is definitely going to give me nightmares tonight…..I can’t believe this is Helena Bonham Carter.

Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen

And then there is one of my favorite actresses…..the gorgeous and stunning Anne Hathaway…..who is going to look really awesome in this movie.

Anne Hathaway as the White Queen

The movie also has Alan Rickman (Yippee!) Michael Sheen (Hurray!!) and Christopher Lee (Wow!!).  So even though I will have to peek through my fingers whilst covering my eyes the whole time, I will be there in the front row to see this movie.

Jen

Being Nikki review!

I was lucky enough to win an ARC for this a few months ago from the one-and-only Meg Cabot.  (I so love ARCs.  There’s just something awesome about a new book coming out and knowing you’re one of the few who get to read it early.)  For those of you who haven’t read Being Nikki, you should!  Well, first you should read Airhead, which is the first in the planned trilogy.  Just to catch you up — in Airhead, Em is a teenage girl who, instead of listening to her younger sister go on and on about supermodel Nikki Howard and her hot friends, would rather be spending time playing computer games with her best friend/secret love Christopher.  Em’s life completely changes one day when, at the opening of a Stark supercenter (which Em competely despises since Stark and their spokesmodel Nikki Howard are taking over the world), a huge television falls on her.  When she wakes up in the hospital, she discovers her brain has been transplanted into Nikki Howard’s body.

In Being Nikki, Em is still pretending to be Nikki Howard, fulfilling the model contracts for Stark, living in her loft, dealing with her so-called boyfriend, and all other baggage Nikki had.  Add to this the fact that Em thinks Stark is spying on her, her best friend/secret love has turned into a rebel since he believes Em died and she can’t tell him because her family would get in major legal trouble, and Nikki’s long-lost older brother has showed up looking for his mother, and Em can hardly keep it under control.

Being Nikki started a little slow for me, but it definitely picked up.  Em is still settling into Nikki’s life, and trying to figure out how to balance what she wants from her old life with what she has in her new.  The parts dealing with Christopher and the problem of Nikki’s missing mom were interesting and help the overall plot of figuring out the whole Stark issue.  The worst part about the book is the way it ends — leaving you READY for the third book Runway, which unfortunately won’t be out for awhile considering she’s currently working on writing it.  Meg Cabot, what are you doing to me??

- Jill

Listen! do da da…

Do you wanna know a secret? do da da

it’s not a secret at all and I want to tell everyone! Last weekend, for the 48 hour Book Challenge, I read The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice and it was LOVELY AND FABULOUS! Remember the I-wish-I-lived-in-that-time-so-I-could-wear-dresses-like-that cover? here it is again:

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice

This book tells the story of Penelope, a 6 ft. tall, average-looking, freckly, young woman who suddenly gets roped into sharing a cab and having tea with complete strangers–strangers who end up becoming very close friends: Charlotte-a free spirited socialite, her cousin Harry-a bored, sarcastic magician, and her aunt Clare-woman who has seen it all. Imagine if Pam from the Office suddenly found herself hanging out with Serena from Gossip Girls, Whoopi Goldberg, and a jaded Edward Cullen. It was as if this book was written purely to make me swoon and feel cozy:

• Set in England? check.
• Set in different time period with beautiful fashion? check. This book makes me believe that everyone wore Dior in the 50’s.
• Set in grand estate/castle that is romantically falling apart? check.
• Narrator is awkward, self-conscious, ironic, and honest? check.
• Oh those crazy Americans? check. I am always fascinated by stories that compare American and the British personality types.
• Narrator helplessly falls in love without knowing how it happened? and then gets all flustered and confused? check.

You know what other book meets that checklist?

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Penelope and her story reminded me sooo much of my favoritest narrator and book: Cassandra and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (the author of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which I also highly recommend). They have the same wonderful way of making me feel just content-there is nothing really spectacular about either story; they don’t push any limits, or make me laugh that much, or cry that much–but it is eerie and magical to read my own exact thoughts and feelings inside a book. The only thing that was missing from The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets was the calm melancholic, but hopeful ending that Cassandra’s story had. I understand why Eva chose to end the story where she did, and I think if the story had actually ended there I may have been okay with it, but she then went on to wrap up the love story in a rushed epilogue. And even this would have been okay if had been set like 50 years later or something and Penelope was reflecting on things (like the Deathly Hallows epilogue which I obviously liked, haha). Instead, the epilogue takes place just a couple weeks later and reads more like an outline of a next chapter that I’m upset I didn’t get to read. I guess I kinda wanted Eva Rice to keep the secret.

Oh gosh, I have to go re-read I Capture the Castle now.

amber

Lindsay is DONE

OK guys, I gotta post quick cause I think the deadline to post is 11:00 (central time).  

So let’s see.  This weekend I actually read LESS than usual.  But that was because we were celebrating our 1 year anniversary and then on Sunday I took like a six hour nap.  It was crazy pants here in Nashville.

But somehow I managed to read / “socialize” for 13.5 hours.  I read 1 whole book, Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover (GG3 by Ally Carter) and it was FABULOUS and I can’t wait until the 4th GG book comes out to find out what happens next!!!  A lot of reading time came from reading out loud to Andrew.  We have 8 more chapters to go in Order of the Phoenix.  We WILL finish it before coming up to Iowa Thursday afternoon.  I am good at forcing him to sit and listen.  And then the rest of my reading time came from listening to Deathly Hallows on my iPod.  I really love listening the the HP series on tape.  Jim Dale has the best voices for the books I think (I have not heard Stephen Fry read them though…I hear he’s also v. v. good).  

But anyways, so this is my end post.  Technically I was done at 7, but as I had to get to work and then start things right away, I didn’t get to post until now.  So hopefully I made the deadline and can be entered into the ARC drawing!  Catching Fire!!!!  Eek!

<3, lindsay

Jill Finished 48hbc!

My time doesn’t end until 7 AM, but I’m calling it now.  My tired little eyes really want me to.  Here was today’s schedule:

4:30-5:00 (started late today after visiting a friend from college)    Began reading Savvy by Ingrid Law, finally picking it up after Jen’s recommendations here here and here (30 min)

— Jen is 100% right.  Savvy was awesome!  I loved the characters, especially Samson, and I REALLY want there to be a sequel about him and his savvy!  …Oh yay according to the FAQ page on her website there WILL be a sequel, but it’s supposed to be about someone we haven’t met yet, although some familiar faces will be around.  Good enough for me!

5:00-7:00   Long phone call, dinner, and some Wii tennis (I think I’m bordering on addiction)

7:00-9:20   Finished Savvy (342 pgs; 2 hr, 20 min)

9:50-10:20   Socializing– catching up on blog comments & reading others’ blogs…I am so impressed with how quickly some of the people participating read & how much time they’ve devoted.  Way to go!  (30 min)

10:40-11:20   Read some of The Lincolns by Candace Fleming after seeing Jen’s post & suddenly remembering my dad owns it  (18 pages; 40 min)

— I like the scrapbook aspect of this a lot.  I’m not usually that good with reading nonfiction even though I really like history, but the boxes of text and variety of interesting topics help me get into it.  I read a chapter or two and decided to move on to something else.  This will be the kind of book I pick up every now and then.

11:50-12:20   Started Masterpiece by Elise Broach, another recommendation from Jen (Jen, you’re like my official book recommender or something!)  (48 pages; 30 min)

— Enjoying this a lot so far!  It’s such a fresh, light-hearted story with a beetle as the main character.  I also really love the little illustrations every few pages.  I’m not too far yet, but I’m sure I’ll finish it soon!

12:30-1:00   Blog  (30 min)

TOTAL (for today):  5 hours and 408 pages

GRAND TOTAL:  15 hours, 30 minutes and 1162 pages!  Yay!!  Totally beat my goal of 12!

Maybe next year I’ll shoot for 20 hours.  :)

P.S.  I’ve loved how so many bloggers have had pictures of their piles of books.  (I love piles of books!)  So I wanted to share my own.  I’ve got quite a few to get to soon that I haven’t touched yet, but it’s ok.  I think I read better when I have a stack staring me down.  :)

Thanks for such an enjoyable reading weekend, everyone!  This was so much fun!

- Jill