It's Monday, What Are You Reading? (17 of 2011)

July 25, 2011 to July 31, 2011

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is hosted by One Persons Journey Through a World of Books. 

It has been forever since I did this Monday Meme. I feel like I'm finally able to participate at least on a bi-weekly basis. I hope all my fellow readers have been diving into some interesting worlds.

It has been so long since I checked in I'm going to have a big recap.
What I Finished

The Wise Man's Fear (Kingkiller Chronicles, Day 2) by Patrick Rothfuss

(review here)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4) by J.K. Rowling

(review here)

Dark Lover (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 1) by J.R. Ward

(review here)

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (Book 5) by J.K. Rowling

(review here)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) by J.K. Rowling

(review here)

What I Am Reading

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) by J.K. Rowling

What's Up Next

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

(audiobook)

I've been "reading" this book for a long time and never got around to finishing it.

It's not that I didn't like the book, it just lost it's interest. The June 2011 Knottie club I started for the brides on the wedding board have voted to read this book for August, so I'll be finishing it up during that time.

Lover Eternal (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 2)  by J.R. Ward

 

27/50: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I couldn't give this one the whole 5 stars. It was the transition book, that although completely necessary, was more like a history lesson. This isn't to knock it, because it fully redeemed itself at the end. All the history was completely necessary to set up book 7.
The history of Voldemort was very intriguing and I liked that Harry had a task to get a memory from someone to help complete the story.

I love how this book had a little more on the teenager side of things. Harry pining over a girl, Ron and Hermione having a battle without realizing it. Hilarious!

I am still in shock from the end events of this book. I have a friend who is in love with Snape and I'm still not sure what to make of that. Some pretty amazing things better happen in Book 7 for me to ever believe he is not an evil person. This is assuming of course that said friend likes Snape because he's good. I feel so much hate towards him and at the same time, pity. Immese amounts of pity.

Frenchie and I watched the movie this weekend as well. Loved it! They cut out a few sub-plot lines which now in reading Book 7 I'm wondering how it's all going to work together in the last movie without having them in movie 6.

I did not cry at the end of this movie, which was incredibly surprising to me. Frenchie was shocked and did his whole "That didn't just happen. I don't believe it. There's no way"

SuBC 2011: Read a book that has been on your To Be Read shelf for over a year; 15 points
Book Journey 2011: UK

View all my reviews

Harry Potter Challenge: July 22, 2011

Frenchie and I ended up watching Harry Potter and The Order of the Pheonix this past Monday. Amazing! They did a wonderful job with the adaptation. When I saw a certain character for the first time in the movie I had to choke back tears. The tears let loose at the end though. Frenchie turned to me and said "Are you crying?" which of course made me cry harder. He had this look of shock after he realized that yes, that just happened, and no it wasn't some wizard trick. I believe he said "holy crap! That just happened!"
I love that my muggle-hubby is loving HP as much as me. He may not be reading the books, but at least we can enjoy the wizarding world together on film.

Finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince! I am so happy I got a little extra time to read this week. I've already started book 7. I'm almost wanting to take my sweet time with it and savour every moment. But, if I want to see HP7pt2 in theatre I need to finish it right away. I figure that these will be books to read again and again.

We will be watching Harry Potter 6 on Sunday when I get home from my weekend with a few girlfriends. Frenchie has asked me what time I'm going to be home so we can watch it. LOVE!

Goals:

Finish Wise Man's Fear
Buy Movies 3 - 7Part 1
Read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Read Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix
Read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Re-watch Movie 1
Re-watch Movie 2
Watch Movie 3
Watch Movie 4
Watch Movie 5
Watch Movie 6
Watch Movie 7 part 1
Watch Movie 7 Part 2 - in theatre

26/50: Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


There are no words to describe this book that can do it justice. Every single character is amazing, yes even the villains.
I laughed, I cried and I have now dug out book 6 and starting it immediately. This book has thrown me so far into the wizarding world and set up the next 2 books I can't even begin to imagine how it will all end.
Curse me for not reading them earlier

Umbridge: I may hate Malfoy but he looks like a puppy compared to this woman. I can't tell you how
many times I sat there and slammed the book shut and say "I hope this woman gets what's coming to her". Rowling wrote a brilliant villain when she created Umbridge.

Things are starting to get a little more serious. The books are definitely leaning to the more adult side of things now. Maybe adult side is the wrong phrase. Dark side would be better.

The DA was awesome and I absolutely loved Neville.

SuBC 2011: Read a Harry Potter book and learn a magic trick; 25 points
Book Journey 2011: London
View all my reviews

25/50: Dark Lover by J.R. Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood #1)

Dark Lover by J.R. Ward

My rating: 3 of 5 stars




Brain Candy. Fun, sexy and a good way to get the right sort of mood going. I will definitely be picking up the rest of this series.

Wrath is an interesting man. He reminds me of the jungle cat that takes a female to subdue. His turn around to be this lover and gentle man made me love Beth even more. She was perfect for him. Feisty, sexy and let's be honest, it's a romance novel, so able to believe anything.
I'm feel pity for her that Darius died and she was thrown into this other world without his help. She found out she lost something she never knew she even had.

The sex scenes were great. Definitely get your motor running regardless if you're a fan of vampires or not.

I will say that the names of the characters are quite amusing. Although I have to say I'm very excited to read the next books.

SUBC 2011: Read a book you heard about on someone's blog - BookNerdBecca - 5 Points
Book Journey 2011: Caldwell, New York

View all my reviews

Harry Potter Challenge: July 18, 2011

By now you have realized that I did not make my challenge date. I wanted to have the books and movies done by July 15. In my heart I figured I wouldn't be done, but I'm darn close! Only 1.5 books left (as of today) and 2 movies + Deathly Hallows part 1.

I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix! I still can't put into words how wonderful this book truly was. I don't want to post spoilers because I know for a fact there are people out there that have not read it. My online friends have done so well not to spoil it for me but posting "spoiler" on their reviews and warning me of posts on the online book club I should not enter into.

I am now halfwya through book 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It's amazing too! I can't wait to see where everything will go from here.

Frenchie is itching to watch the next movies. He may not want to admit it, but I think he secretly likes the series. He'll never read them, but he keeps asking questions after we watch a movie. He's asking questions I can't tell him the answers to because it will spoil things for him. I must read faster!

We will be watching the 5th movie tonight.
Because of our trip this past weekend and the amount of driving Frenchie offered to do (he told me to finish the books so he gets his wife back), I am thinking I'll be able to drag him to see Deathly Hallows part 2 in 3D at the theatre by August long weekend!!

Goals:

Finish Wise Man's Fear
Buy Movies 3 - 7Part 1
Read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Read Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix
Read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Re-watch Movie 1
Re-watch Movie 2
Watch Movie 3
Watch Movie 4
Watch Movie 5
Watch Movie 6
Watch Movie 7 part 1
Watch Movie 7 Part 2 - in theatre

Pole Competition: Am I crazy?

Calgary is hosting the first ever Miss Pole Dance Alberta competition. I've been talked into entering by my instructor/friend. I can't tell you how nervous I am and I haven't even put together my video submission yet. That in itself is going to take more work than getting up in front of a crowd.

Why am I so nervous you ask? It's not the performance itself that is making me feel this way. It is the fact that I have not been in classes since May and haven't worked on much of anything since then. Other than teaching intro classes, I haven't touched a pole to work on advanced moves. Nor have a danced for a long period of time. Our routines are to be over 4 minutes long. The only routine I've ever done was less than that.

I think I'm crazy, but once you tell people you're submitting an application, you better do it right?

So here's the first challenge. I need to find a song, create a routine and record it on video by August 10. All the while hoping my wrist cooperates so I can actually accomplish this. So far, not so good. I iced my wrist all evening last night and have gone through more advil than a person should really take in the 2 days I've been at work this week.

I honestly don't think I'll get chosen to move on to the finals after the video voting, but it's worth a shot!

Wedding Wednesday: July 6, 2011

Last Wedding Wednesday post.

We're finally married, back from the honeymoon and happy as can be! Nothing has really changed for us except I'm now Mrs. B. (Madame B)  It's weird to be called by a new name. Seeing it in writing is one thing, but verbal is different. It will take some getting used to.

The name change process is going to be a long one. It's taking longer to get the official changes done because we had a postal strike and not everything got submitted after the wedding. There are so many places you use your name. Just last night we bought dog food for Beta and the rewards program is under my maiden name.

I got a new picture taken for my license and signed my new name. Need to work on the signature a bit. I had to sign it twice last night when we returned my leased vehicle.

Life is sort of settling down to normal. We still have a lot of post-wedding things to take care of. Return some vases, organize, clean and sell what wedding things we can. I have a friend who is looking at the tulle and the lights we used. Hopefully that works out.

I'm not sure what to replace my weekly Wednesday posts with now. I'll need to think of something fun.

June Recap

Books
Books read to date: 24/50
Pages read to date: 7300


Finished

Wise Man's Fear (review link)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Continued
Water for Elephants - audio book

Started
Dark Lover (Black Dagger Brotherhood Book 1)

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
Chic Fit Geek's Harry Potter Challenge has begun!
Original Post

Savings 

Monthly savings: $7.79

Year-to-date savings: $223.49
(this number has gone down because my calculations were incorrect before)

Book Journey

Fantasy world of Wise Man's Fear, London

Movies

X-Men: First Class
Amazing!! I'm a huge fan of the X-Men franchise. (Wolverine for the win!) I was very excited to see how it all started. Xavier is an outstanding character and James McAvoy did a great job. Magneto was great. I love his story and Mystiques story.
If you've seen the other movies go see this one!
ps. Cameo of Hugh Jackman is well worth going to see this movie

Fitness
Failed at fitness this month. I have a good excuse at least!

Life Change
I got married! If you've been following this blog a while, you've probably seen my weekly wedding posts and no doubt have seen my first "Just Married" post.

Harry Potter Challenge: Update July 4

I have started The Order of the Pheonix. The flight back from our honeymoon was so much more enjoyable having this book to read. I love it already!
We watched The Goblet of Fire while we were on our honeymoon one of the rainy nights we had. It was bad, but I was disappointed they left out so much. I know this is common and I know it will happen from here on out, so it's not a surprise. I had to explain a bunch of things to Frenchie so he had a better understanding of what was going on.
Frenchie has already been asking if I'm done book 5 yet because he wants to watch the movie. Makes me laugh that he's so invested in watching them.

Goals:

Finish Wise Man's Fear
Buy Movies 3 - 7Part 1
Read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Read Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix
Read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Re-watch Movie 1
Re-watch Movie 2
Watch Movie 3
Watch Movie 4
Watch Movie 5
Watch Movie 6
Watch Movie 7 part 1
Watch Movie 7 Part 2 - in theatre