Monday Meme

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English 30% Dixie 10% Upper Midwestern 5% Yankee 0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

'Cause "Y'all" does just roll off the tip of my tongue!

Book # 11 -- Magic Study

You know your life is bad when you miss your days as a poison taster . . .

With her greatest enemy dead, and on her way to be reunited with the family she'd been stolen from long ago, Yelena should be pleased. But though she has gained her freedom, she can't help feeling isolated in Sitia. Her Ixian background has changed her in many ways -- and her newfound friends and relatives don't think it's for the better . . .

Despite the turmoil, she's eager to start her magic training -- especially as she's been given one year to harness her power or be put to death. But her plans take a radical turn when she becomes involved with a plot to reclaim Ixia's throne for a lost prince -- and gets entangled in powerful rivalries with her fellow magicians.

If that wasn't bad enough, it appears her brother would love to see her dead. Luckily, Yelena has some old friends to help her with all her new enemies . . .

The Book Geek Says: I'm so mad I have to wait until February 2008 (!) to read the next in the series Fire Study. Maybe not as good as Poison Study but still an enjoyable read. Certainly enough to make me want more from this interesting world.

Holy Moly!

The shizz has hit the fan e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e!! Somebody share some happy news, please.


ETA: Amanda Young tagged me, and I finally thought of 8 things about myself (see previous post). It took me almost a week!! I'm just not that interesting, people.

Tagged!

Amanda Young tagged me!! The nerve! *grin*

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.



I bite my fingernails. My dad bit his fingernails so I picked up that little habit from him. When I was younger, my mother threatened to put various substances on or under my nails to get me to stop.

My most favorite movie is Gone With the Wind. Scarlett O'Hara has helped me through some rough times. Some may think she's bitchy but oh how I love her!

I'm double-jointed, though not nearly as much as I used to be. Getting old does that to a person.

It's impossible for me to choose a favorite book. My tastes are so diverse and I read things in many different genres. In the Top 5, however, are Gone With the Wind, Absalom! Absalom!, The Sound and the Fury, Oral History and North and South.

In high school, my knee caps popped out of place a lot which would cause me to fall flat on my butt. It was during the time of those commericals featuring an old woman who had fallen and couldn't get up. So, of course, they'd say that every damn time it happened. Yes, my friends had a lot of laughs at my expense.

I'm a klutz. Seriously. This is a trait I think my son has inherited. That poor boy falls down a lot. A couple of days ago, he tripped over his own feet.

My husband and I have been together for 12 years ("living in sin" as my grandmother liked to remind me until we got married 7 years ago). We've moved 5 times, most recently in October. I don't plan to move again.

I'd love to take a Mediterranean cruise.

Book #9 -- Poison Study

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooma in the palace--and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust--and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear...

The Book Geek Says: Hurrah for second chances!! I'd checked Poison Study out from the library last year but couldn't get into it. Perhaps I had too many other things on my brain, I don't know. When I picked it up for the second time earlier this year, I couldn't put it down!!

Book #10 -- On Agate Hill

Molly Petree, orphaned by the Civil War, is by her own definition "a spitfire and a burden. I do not care. My family is a dead family, and this is not my home, for I am a refugee girl."

Raised in the ruins of a once prosperous plantation on Agate Hill in North Carolina, she's a refugee who has no interest in self-pity. To document her headstrong life, she collects its artifacts—her lifelong diaries, letters, poems, songs, newspaper clippings, court records, marbles, rocks, dolls, bones (some human, some not).

When a mysterious benefactor appears out of her father's past to rescue her, teenaged Molly Petree never looks back. Taking what she is offered, she saves herself and then risks everything to hold true to her nature and to true love. She casts aside two prosperous, well-born suitors to marry a dashing—and philandering—mountaineer only to be accused of his murder. The end of Molly Petree's story is as unpredictable and as passionate as her own wide-open heart.

Spanning half a century, Lee Smith's portrait of a fiery Southern woman recalls the South from Reconstruction to the Roaring Twenties—and, in the process, gives us Molly Petree, living and breathing, gripping the reader's arm as the story unfolds.

The Book Geek Says: I've only written fan letters to a handful of authors, but Lee Smith was the first. One summer -- after I decided I was going to Ole Miss graduate school to become a Southern Literature expert which, sadly, never happened -- I read everything Lee Smith had ever written. Then I wrote her. Surprise, surprise, she wrote me back. A three-sentence postcard that's tucked away in News of the Spirit. On Agate Hill made me fall in love with her writing all over again.

Monday Meme

You Are Grape

You are bold and a true individual. You are very different and very okay with that. People know you as a straight shooter. You're very honest, even when the truth hurts. You are also very grounded and practical. No one is going to sneak anything by you. People enjoy your fresh approach to life. And it's this honesty that makes you a very innovative person.

What Color Purple Are You?