Reason #17 why I miss Michael

He understands my love of reading. 

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Sookie Style

I have been re-reading/watching True Blood recently, and I just love Sookie Stackhouse's Southern Style. It's so sweet and refreshing in Summer, that it's giving me serious summer dress coveting syndrome. (Yes, this is a real thing).

I love the white and red dress, white headband and little red earrings. She always looks so sweet yet polished!





Another white, floral summer dress. Halterneck this time, paired with more cute earrings.




And, of course, her extra fancy dress, paired with a metallic clutch and more simple jewellery.




Hmm, perhaps it is time to invest in a new summer wardrobe...



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Good Reads

so, I've just joined Good Reads. It's a website where you review books and can see how others have reviewed them as well. It's actually quite laborious to begin with, as you have to list books you've read, and are currently reading, as well as books on your to-read list.

Now, if you know me, then you know that I've read quite a few books over the course of my lifetime. It turns out I can't remember most of the books I've read! Do you think it counts to list all of the Famous Five...?

Anyway, I'm on there, under my gmail account. Check it out and don't forget to add me as a friend!

The Scarlet Letter

So, I recently discovered this clever little literary reference when scanning www.richarddawkins.net. Inspired by his documentaries and books, particularly The God Delusion, I was browsing the online shop, when I stumbled upon this cool t shirt:




Does it remind you of anything?

I immediately called this to mind:





The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Where the protagonist, Hester Prynne, has conceived a daughter through an adulturous affair, and is forced to wear a scarlet "A" for "Adulterer" on her clothes at all times. Of course, Puritan society is not very forgiving. Incidentally, neither are the current religious. (Irony impaired, much?). So Dawkin's scarlet letter for "Athiest" is a genius idea, in my opinion, and a badge I am proud to wear.

My Week

Things I have been up to this week;



1) Missing Michael. Although I have finished my degree, Michael is still completing his PGCE course and is back and forth from London and Chelmsford. He was recently away for three days, so I have been mooching around until he came home again. (Yay!).



2) Visited my Babcia and Dziadzia. (Grandparents). I learnt how to make pierogi, which are a kind of pasta dumpling with a cheese and potato filling. Sounds weird, but yummy.







3) Looked at lots of bunnies and wanted one very badly. I filled up my phone memory with photos of them, and managed to name quite a few before I was cruelly dragged away.






4) Arranged some work experience at my old Junior school. I have a meeting with the head the week after half term to confirm details, but then hopefully I can check this item off my summer list!



5) Reading. It is so so nice to read for pleasure once again. I've read the latest in the Sookie Stackhouse series, Dead Reckoning, (great, but finished on a cliffhanger, which yet again will leave me hanging for another year!) Then I read Angelology, which was amazing, and will also have a sequel, and a movie. I also read God is a Rabbit, drawn in by the title.

Now I am about to start David Mitchell's latest title, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which looks intriguing, and I loved Cloud Atlas, so I have high hopes for this one. I have not yet finished The Hare with Amber Eyes either, preferring to read it in small increments. The reason for this being here: http://miarabbit.blogspot.com/2011/05/beautiful-book.html.







And that has been my week!

A Beautiful Book

Books are like food. They have different flavours. Some are reminiscent of a packet of your favourite crisps: Not very refined, but they just taste so good, you keep going back for more. To me, Russian literature is like roasted potatoes. More effort, but definitely rewarding.

Then there are the Beautiful books. A rarer find, these books fill you with inspiration and the language itself resembles a carefully crafted piece of art. These books are the chocolate truffles of the literary world. I have seldom come across a Beautiful book in my years of reading. They are bewitching yet elusive, and tend to be stumbled upon by chance, they cannot be sought out.

The book I am currently reading is Beautiful: The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance.

The only other Beautiful book I can think of (that I have read), is The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

Although, of course, many books have eloquent language, these books are really something special. Rather than wanting to gobble the pages up like a standard bar of chocolate, you attempt to savour them.

 Letting the words melt on your tongue. 

Nibbling the thick chocolate casing as you slowly polish off the preface. 

Each chapter is a bite further into the creamy, praline center. 

Until, finally all that remains is a few flakes of sugar, as you linger over the final sentence, bitter sweet that you have finished the novel. 

Have you met the Bonobos?

No? Well, allow me to introduce you to them....

 aww, hello!

So, bonobos are a type of Ape, but they are especially remarkable because they are the closest ape, genetically speaking, to humans. In fact we share over 98% of our genetic makeup. Also, they strongly resemble Australopithecus, the earliest species of human. In the wild, they live only in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is why we know less of bonobos than other simians, e.g. chimpanzees (a close cousin of the bonobos).

Check this TED video out:

http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_savage_rumbaugh_on_apes_that_write.html

It really makes you think.... 

Oh, and in case you were wondering (I was), this is a reconstructed image of an australopithecus afarensis: 

So this has been one of my interests lately, and I was further intrigued, when, after reading Water For Elephants (great book), I discovered that Sara Gruen had written another book, Ape House, about bonobos! It's on my to-read list...

(images courtesy of Google and Wikipedia. Documentary from TED).

The 100 Book Challenge

So, I'm studying English Literature, and that requires a lot of reading. But I really don't mind, since I adore reading. Books have always inspired, influenced and entertained me. So I was shocked when I realised that it had been months since I'd read for fun, read what I wanted to... Hence, the 100 Book Challenge. It's my challenge to read 100 books by 31st August, 2012.

Anyone who wants to join me, is more than welcome to! I'm currently on number 10... Madame Bovary, a book I've always wanted to read, but never gotten around to.

Does anyone have any other recommendations? I'm compiling a book wish-to-read list!

(Images courtesy of Google)