winner

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(Ceramicdog wanted to help)

The winner of the Her Perfect Symmetry book giveaway is...
Tiffany from Live Happy! Congrats:)
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(always looking for a belly rub)
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giveaway : her perfect symmetry

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Last fall I was pumped to receive an early copy of one of my favorite author, Audrey Niffenegger's latest book Her Perfect Symmetry. I had adored The Time Traveler's Wife and loved reading this one as well - you can read my review here.

Regal Literary is having an amazing contest where you can win airfare and three nights in a London hotel, complete with a private tour of Highgate Cemetery with Audrey Niffenegger (this cemetery is a big component of the book and sounds gorgeous, haunting and historic... amazing prize!)
You can also win one of 100 copies of the very rare Special Limited Edition of Her Fearful Symmetry, valued at $75 each or one of 100 signed broadsheets featuring a beautiful illustration by Audrey Niffenegger and a passage from Her Fearful Symmetry.

So first, go enter the contest! You're basically insane not to considering a trip to London is on the line!

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ALSO, you lucky dogs, they've offered a copy of the book to one of Grace's Birdcage readers!

To enter, just comment below with your name and email address. For an extra entry feel free to tweet this one up, just let me know if you do.

The contest will close this Saturday, July 10th and the winner will be announced on Sunday.

her fearful symmetry

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Many of you will remember how much I adore The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - absolutely one of my favorites. I was lucky enough to get the chance to read Audrey’s next book, Her Fearful Symmetry (available September 29th). The book arrived and I finished it within a few days (couldn’t put it down!) but have been struggling to write a good blurb for you. One that expresses how much I liked the book - but in such a different way than Time Traveler's Wife. I’ve read a few other reviews and I’m worried they give away too much, so I’m going to try and keep this vague in the story sense. I want you to read this book like I did, completely not expecting what’s before you.
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The Time Traveler’s Wife was a story about the line between now and then - crossing the line of time, between past, present and future. Her Fearful Symmetry is a story about the line between life and death - crossing the line of life, between here and gone.
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The first chapter made me cry. A lot. Enough that I considered maybe this was not a book for me. It hit some chords that I didn’t expect - this look at death that I wasn’t sure what to do with. But I kept reading and was quickly taken.
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The story is set in London (hello?! brownie points for my favorite city) and follows a little apartment building full of fascinating characters, namely a pair of eerie twin sisters as they discover the city, the cemetery next door and their neighbors. I adored the way the history of the cemetery and that area of London was woven into the story.
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In my opinion, the most intriguing aspect of Time Traveler’s Wife was the author’s ability to make something unbelievable completely…believable. She does this again in Her Fearful Symmetry in a very different but absolutely beautiful way. I’m still struggling to describe this book in the way it deserves.
The bottom line is that I loved it. And you should read it.
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She said, ‘I know what it’s like to be dead.
I know what it is to be sad.’
And she’s making me feel like I’ve never been born.
-The Beatles
(a quote featured at the beginning of the book that could not be more perfect)

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Photos from Vogue 2004 photographed by Arthur Elgort via Dustjacket Attic

oh dear

I fear I've fallen under the mass media spell.
I have no idea what the Twilight books are about,

and I can't say I really understand the hype.

But then I go and watch the MTV Movie Awards last night.

And there he was. And then he talked.
And they play this scene.
And now I fear I've fallen under the spell.


Heading to the library tomorrow...

If you want to comment 'wow, you 14 year old tween sell-out!' its ok,
I would comment that to me too.

time

If you haven't read The Time Traveler's Wife, get up immediately - bust your bum to the nearest bookstore/library what have you and get it.

Its amazing.

They're coming out with the movie version this summer and I'm kind of excited/nervous. The second I got done with this book I begged the movie heavens to make a film out of it. But you never know, books-into-movies are either fabulous or not so much. And I want this to be fabulous. What if its not as beautiful as it is in my head? What if they don't do it the right way?

The rundown- without giving anything away:

Rachel McAdams as Claire. YES. you had me at mean girls and i loved you in the notebook.

Eric Bana as Henry. NOT SURE. no idea, someone give me the downlow on this guy. hes got quite a jaw.

Ron Livingston as Gomez. NO. Ron, I want to you like you. First you're Burger on SATC and i just never really liked you even though I wanted to. Now you're Gomez, who I never really could get a grip on and then wanted to hit with a bat. Sooo i'm going to say bad call, but I hope you surprise me.

As you can see, this averages out to whothehellknows. It comes out in August and I will there on opening day - because I love this story. And I want it to translate so beautifully.

Go read the book!

more info/photos from here.

whoops

So I'm in the midst of In Vogue - this fabulous encyclopedia-esque book that I got for Christmas. But I thought I'd stop by the library to grab another read -one that's maybe more of a novel and not so much endless gorgeous photos. And what do I come home with? Four books filled with fabulous fashion photos...BUT one novel. About people in fashion.

Its funny, studying art and design in school you learn all of this history and all of the well-known designers and artists and what they've accomplished, their style etc. History of furniture and architecture etc. Fashion is this whole other realm of design that, while I've always appreciated it, I've never really known that much about it. The history and what makes these really amazing designers tick - what little details you should appreciate and watch for that you might not normally know about.

So this book was featured on daucas carota in her wish list today. I'm in love love love. It looks like a beautiful collection of work - and I love in the exerpt where he mentions thinking about how he'd like his daughter to remember him and how that should affect what he does with his life.

reading wishlist

Chanel: Collections and Creations.

Chanel and Her World.

The Beautiful Fall:Lagerfeld, Saint Laurent, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris.

In Vogue: The Illustrated History of the World's Most Famous Fashion Magazine.

urban sprawl

This is on my reading list.

From Amazon... "In Urban Sprawl and Public Health, Howard Frumkin, Lawrence Frank, and Richard Jackson, three of the nation's leading public health and urban planning experts explore an intriguing question: How does the physical environment in which we live affect our health? For decades, growth and development in our communities has been of the low-density, automobile-dependent type known as sprawl. The authors examine the direct and indirect impacts of sprawl on human health and well-being, and discuss the prospects for improving public health through alternative approaches to design, land use, and transportation."

a little book review

So I just finished Pride and Prejudice. Swoon.

It's been a long time since I've gotten so excited about a book - I can't recommend it enough. Just so happens that a reader emailed today and asked if I had any book recommendations (or knew of any blogs about books-anyone?)

So here is my list of favorites... I realize the covers don't really matter - but lets face it, we're visual people, we need to see these things.

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. I still can't believe she was 21 when she wrote this. Seriously fabulous classic romance - the language can be hard to read, but its amazing how many little subtleties cross over from time, culture etc.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Really great book set in the 1960s in the south. Its about a young girl who is taken in by these three wonderful sisters - who happen to raise bees. Its a very enjoyable read ( I think there's a movie coming out this fall).

Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland. This was a really interesting book. Its the story of a painting. The first chapter starts with the current owner, the story of how the obtained the painting etc. Then the next chapter is the previous owner, and the next the owner before that- going back hundreds of years and through every type of situation you can imagine.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Ooo in my list of favorites this might be the favorite. This is a love story about a man who involuntarily travels to different times in his own life and how the woman he loves comes in and out of his life. I had to go back many times and re-read parts, it skips around in time but that makes it so much more interesting. Just a beautiful story (and I think there's a movie of this one on the way as well.)

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne. This is kind of random - but when I was young this was one of my favorite books, I read it sooo many times and I still like to think of it as one of my favorites. Fabulous adventure story - wonderful for the imagination. Oh, and there's also a movie of this one coming out. It looks incredibly awful and has (in my opinion) the worst actor ever in it - so I do not recommend that. By any means.

Emma by Jane Austen. I just read this a few months ago. A few chapters in I realized that the movie Clueless had been created as a modern version of this book (so that kind of gives you a story line) It was really fun to read - you fall completely in love with Emma and all of her intentions.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. I read this right before the movie came out - and the movie did a great job, but it left out like half of the story. Another wonderful love story, and fascinating to learn all about this secret world of geisha.

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice. If you're looking for a nothing-but-fun book, I recommend this. Think Paris Hilton and her friends in the 1950s in London - I was so disappointed when I finished this one, I wanted there to be twelve more books about this crazy social scene of fabulous parties etc

Up next...The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Its come very highly recommended to me - I'll let you know!