#warwick's

[reading-with-a-view]

Lovely day at Warwick's in La Jolla

[wellesleybooks]

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[theartofdreaming1]

California Readin’

Lame title, I know ^^;

But yeah, I’m back from my trip to California and a new semester has already begun... I’m thinking of posting some photos from my travel but picking out pics is quite the task, so I decided to at least review the trip from a bookworm’s point of view (since browsing a bookstore is a own journey of its own ;)

I had a great time buying me some books on my California trip ^^ (Where else am I going to find such an amazing collection of English books at a bookstore?! Not Germany, that’s for sure - it’s already amazing when a bookstore here does have English books at all...)

I had written down some addresses of independent bookstores from the cities we were going to visit and we got to check out some of them:

Warwick’s in La Jolla, San Diego: I got ‘The Island of Doctor Moreau’ there; I had been looking for an edition of Anne Brontë’s “Tenant of Wildfell Hall” but wasn’t lucky in my search - but the store was just so awesome and the staff so nice (even recommending another bookstore close by to continue my search), I just *had* to buy something there and hey, I haven’t gotten around to checking out H. G. Wells as of yet ^^

The Last Bookstore in Los Angeles: I mean, that bookstore was just amazing to look at! (Unfortunately, we were a bit pressed for time so I didn’t get to see much of the second floor, which is a crying shame, but I was a woman on a mission to find “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” - even though I ended up being unsuccessful on that front there, too.) After watching ‘Alias Grace’ on Netflix just weeks before this trip, I had put Margaret Atwood’s book on my to-buy-list and was super happy to have gotten this for a really great price here :)

Alexander Book Company in San Francisco: Damn, that bookstore was the BEST! Huge amounts of books spread over three floors with beautiful editions and lots of bargains! <3 Since we hadn’t been to that many bookstores until then and our flight back home was in two days, I totally indulged in a book buying spree, getting myself Dickens’ ‘Haunted House’ and ‘Great Expectations’, as well as Glen Weldon’s ‘The Caped Crusade’ and R. L. Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’ (which I actually read many years ago, but only in German and hey, it’s a pretty cover ^^;), plus I got myself a “Binge Reader”-button since it’s a very apt description of little ol’ me ;)

City Lights Books in San Francisco: Another great bookstore in SF, with a cool collection and pretty editions, as can be seen by the copies of Jane Austen’s ‘Persuasion’ and Ray Bradbury’s ‘Dandelion Wine’ that I got there. (They did have hardcover editions of ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ there - a singular copy and one paired with Anne Brontë’s other book ‘Agnes Grey’ - but since there was a tiny tear in one of the pages - and I’m very snobby about the books I buy, I can’t help it - and those editions were both pretty heavy, I didn’t buy one.)

So yeah, just a quick recap of my California trip from a bibliophilic point of view ;)

Bonus:

I got a very nice edition of ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ for Easter ;)

[kellys50-50challenge-blog]

4 books // Books in Progress

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Book #3 was Dreams of Joy by Lisa See.  We had a great book club discussion about this one with the daytime ladies of San Diego Book Divas! on February 16.  This is the sequel to Shanghai Girls that we had read last year. 

This book was so well written, interesting and rich with detail.  It was so wonderful to get the rest of the story since Shanghai Girls left us hanging with Joy running away to China.  I didn't know anything about China during this time period... heck I don't know much about China at all!  It was really fascinating to read the main character Joy's story and how she adapted to life in China and grew up in the process.  I highly recommend this book.  You will probably want to read Shanghai Girls first, but there were a couple of ladies in my group who hadn't and they did fine.  There were just a few characters that they didn't have as much background on. 

I had heard Lisa See speak about the book last year before I read it and it was a wonderful talk.  She is currently touring to promote the book in paperback and coming to Warwick's on April 16th.  I highly recommend going if you are interested!  She is a great speaker and very funny.  She really loves interacting with her readers and has a great time with it.

Dreams of Joy = 5 stars out of 5

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Book #4 was With Friends Like These [2010] by Sally Koslow.

I read this book for a meetup of the Weekend SD Book Divas! and had a great discussion.  I think the majority of us agreed that this wasn’t the best book.  The story follows 4 women friends in NYC as they were friends 10 years ago and then start to drift apart and have issues with each other.  The story was told with each chapter being from one of the four women’s perspectives.  Personally, I like this format because it’s interesting to have a first person account but from various viewpoints.  The main problem with this book as that we didn’t get enough character development on any of the four characters and they all felt flat.  It was hard to keep track of the 4 women and I kept thinking that the author should have used different fonts for each character.  I really love the way that one of my favorite authors, Jodi Picoult, does this with her books.  It really allows the reader to have a richer insight into the characters and more easily change perspectives with each narrator.   At the meetup, we discussed how all four of the characters were not fully developed and did stupid things.  We had a great time discussing our own experiences with female friendships and how the relationships grew or eventually dissolved.  I definitely had a far better time at the meetup with my girls than reading this dull book!

With Friends Like These = 2 stars out of 5

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Completed Books I Need to Blog:

Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult [2012] (pre-purchased for 2/28 release & then got it signed at event on March 6th)

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson [1999]

Books in Progress:

Why Him? Why Her?: How to Find and Keep Lasting Love by Helen Fielding for Nonfiction Book Divas on Tuesday 2/21 = almost done!

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach for Nonfiction Book Divas on Tuesday 2/21 = almost done!

The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron.  My 12 week class will wrap up on March 29.

Miss Manners on Painfully Proper Weddings [1995] by Judith Martin

Planet Wedding: A Nuptialpedia [2010] by Sandra & Harry Choron

Plan To Read (but haven’t started yet):

The Great Gatsby [1925] by F. Scott Fitzgerald for Quarterly Classics Book Divas on Monday 4/9

Lottery [2008] by Patricia Wood for Daytime Book Divas on Thursday 4/12

Night Road by Kristin Hannah [2011] (purchased & got it signed at an event)

Still Missing [2010] by Chevy Stevens

State of Wonder [2011] by Ann Patchett 

A Discovery of Witches [2011] by Deborah Harkness

The Outsiders [1967] by S.E. Hinton for Quarterly Classics Book Divas on Monday 7/9

--KRG

[kellys50-50challenge-blog]

Author Event, Thoughts, and my Books in Progress

Last night I went to an awesome author talk and book signing at Warwick's.  It's a great independent bookstore in La Jolla.  They are able to get some pretty big names.  I've seen Lisa See (for her book Dreams of Joy that I'm currently reading) and Jodi Picoult (at another location).  Last night was Kristin Hannah.  I've read a few of her books before:  On Mystic Lake, Firefly Lane, True Colors.  My favorite was Firefly Lane and it was cool to hear that part of the story was autobiographical for her, whereas most of her books aren't. I purchased Night Road in paperback and got it autographed.  It's about a mom experiencing her son's senior year of high school and a drunk driving incident.  I'm thinking I might schedule a meetup to discuss this book.  She was such an interesting author and I'm still fascinated that she writes all of her books longhand on yellow legal pads and then enters them into the computer!

myself and author Kristin Hannah [2/6/12]

Books in Progress:

Life Is Not a Reality Show: Keeping It Real with the Housewife Who Does It All by Kyle Richards  (of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) (for a book signing on Saturday 2/11 at Warwick's)

Dreams of Joy by Lisa See (for Daytime Book Divas on Thursday 2/16)

Why Him? Why Her?: How to Find and Keep Lasting Love by Helen Fielding (for Nonfiction Book Divas on Tuesday 2/21)

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach (for Nonfiction Book Divas on Tuesday 2/21)

The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron.  I’m in week 4 of a 12 week class that will wrap up on March 29.

It's now week 6 of 2012 and I have only 1 book finished, but 5 more in progress.  That almost counts, right?  I did make a lot of progress on Dreams of Joy by getting it on my Kindle and reading on my iPhone.  It is a great read and I'm really looking forward to discussing it with my Daytime book club girls!