My Life ...: June 2013

Sunday, June 30, 2013

...in books

I will be joining the Summer Lovin' Read-a-thon!

The Summer Lovin’ Readathon is a week-long readathon event hosted by seven independent bloggers! (Oh, Chrys!, Tumbling Books, Effortlessly Reading, Love Life Read, Shelf Addiction, Read Sleep Repeat, and Reviewing Wonderland)

There will be daily challenges for awesome prizes and opportunities to get points toward the Grand Prize Packs. As if that weren’t enough – the week will end with a 24-hr marathon readathon! Twitter parties, mini-challenges, games, prizes given EVERY HOUR, and more chances to get points toward the Grand Prize Packs. Sign-ups will be open through July 6th.

As always with Read-a-thons I don't have a list of books I plan to read because I am a mood reader but I will update this page with my daily progress. You can chat about your progress on Twitter all week long using the hashtag #SummerLovin13.

Updates:

Monday

read 246 page
finished The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes

Tuesday

Saturday, June 29, 2013

...in pictures

Sometimes life gets in the way of doing this you planned to do. That's okay and totally understandable but when you organized a Photochallenge and missed half the weeks there really is no excuse.

My name is Karin and I tend to knock off taking photos when I have a lot on my to-do list.

I took some of the photos in the weeks where it was the theme of the Challenge but some took just to much time to plan or organize and so I didn't take the time to realize my ideas. However I finally am free of most of the things that took all my time during the last weeks and I sat down and realized my ideas.

Week 13: Orange

Week 14: Car

Week 15: Round

I was sorting out all the junk from my wallet and while I took a phone call I sorted the coins in a circle. After hanging up, it hit me - I just created the photo for round.

Week 16: Pink

I am not a typical girly girl (thank God) but even I own somethings in pink. Those are my

Revlon Lip Butters on which I regularly stock up when I'm in London.

Week 17: Star

On the Northern hemisphere we cannot see the Southern Cross but when I was in Western Australia two years ago I managed to capture it on a photo. The picture below shows a close up with the Southern Cross marked in the circle.

Week 18: Tree

Week 19: Brunch

I love Sunday brunch and the one thing essential for me at a brunch are fresh Semmel (which you can roughly translate as rolls) and Kornspitz (which I cannot translate).

Week 20: Purple

Week 21: Smooth

While sitting at a coffee shop waiting for a friend I played around with my phone and made this photo of the table. When I looked at it afterwards I thought it was the perfect picture for smooth.

Week 22: Spice(s)

Two very different forms of the same spice - cinnamon.

Week 23: Bird

Week 24: Rain

Week 25: Mountain

As every book hoarder I have a huge mountain of unread books and this is only a small amount of my TBR (to be read) pile.

Friday, June 28, 2013

...in books

I found this video on YouTube today and felt the need to share this video with you

my bookish friends.

An interview with J.K. Rowling and some women of the Harry Potter films.

If you like the book and films take 23 minutes of your time and watch this wonderful video.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

...in books

Review

Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams

by Jenny Colgan

First sentence:

Soor Plooms

This is a Scots term that translates as sour plums, but in its original language imitates exactly the contortions of your mouth as soon as you pop one in.

Summary:

Rosie Hopkins thinks leaving her busy London life, and her boyfriend Gerard, to sort out her elderly Aunt Lilian s sweetshop in a small country village is going to be dull. Boy, is she wrong.
Lilian Hopkins has spent her life running Lipton s sweetshop, through wartime and family feuds. As she struggles with the idea that it might finally be time to settle up, she also wrestles with the secret history hidden behind the jars of beautifully coloured sweets.

source: Goodreads

My opinion:

I am a huge fan of books dealing with food in any way – cooking, baking, sweets, chocolate, opening a restaurant, B&B, bakery; you name it I'll read it!

Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams was my third Jenny Colgan book after Meet me at the Cupcake Café and Christmas at the Cupcake Café (read my review here) and it's been sitting on my shelf for months waiting for the perfect moment to devour it.

This book tells the story of Rosie, a Londoner, who has to move to the countryside to take care of her old great-aunt Lilian. Lilian lived in the small village of Lipton all her life and lived through war, loss and heartbreak. She always took care of her family's sweet shop but now she is no longer able to live on her own and Rosie comes with the intention of selling the shop, looking for a good place for her great-aunt to stay and move back to her city-life as quickly as possible.

Rosie never imagined that life outside of the city could be nice too and way more relaxing and soon she discovers the joy of country life.

Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams tells Rosie's dedication to get the sweet shop up and running again to be able to sell it soon for a reasonable price and on the other hand Lilian's story of life; seeing her brothers go to war, seeing her friends leave Lipton to live their lifes, falling in love.

Jenny Colgan created a lovely novel with wonderful characters and a great storyline. Her writing made the village of Lipton come to life before my eyes and I had to laugh out loud more than once while reading it. I am pretty sure I looked a bit like a weirdo sitting on the bus trying hard not to laugh out loud but failing miserably at it.

If you are looking for a wonderful book who's characters will stay with you for a long time then I highly recommend Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams and afterwards I am sure you will feel the urge to check out Jenny's other books too.

For more information about Jenny Colgan visit her Homepage, Facebook and Twitter page.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

...in books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish.

This week the girls want to know my

Top Ten Books I've Read So Far In 2013

Until today I read 46 books in 2013 and narrowing it down to my Top Ten is really hard because most of them I really liked.

Okay, narrowing it down to my top ten was possible with a bit a cheating but still - here is my list:

The Ruby Red trilogy (Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green) by Kerstin Gier

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

The Archived by Victoria Schwab

Snuff by Terry Pratchett

Rescue Me by Rachel Gibson

Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan

Simply Irresistible by Jill Shalvis

The Sweetest Thing by Jill Shalvis

Head Over Heels by Jill Shalvis

Monday, June 24, 2013

...in pictures

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

To celebrate summer finally hitting Vienna this week's topic will be:

Sommer / Summer

Please link you post to mine in time.

Submission period is between the 24th of June and the 1st of July

(11:59 pm CET).

Sunday, June 23, 2013

...in books

Showcase Sunday is weekly meme hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits & Tea which was inspired by In My Mailbox from Kristie at The Story Siren.

It is a possibility for us to show what amazing books we got during the week.

Last week I only got one book but what a book :)

I participated in a Facebook Giveaway for Monica McInerney's new book The House of Memories and I still cannot believe that I won. Monica contacted me on Monday and the book arrived on Wednesday morning. Now I am truely impressed with the Irish and Austrian postal service.

The book was wrapped and with it came a bit of swag - a lovely fox bookmark, a postcard with a fox on it and some cards with the book cover.

Monica signed it too. Now I have three signed books by her.

Now to something completely different:

As many of you will know already, Google will stop the Google Reader on July 1st. Therefore I highly recommend, if you follow me via GFC, to follow my blog another way.

You can do so by subscribing via e-mail (link can be found in the sidebar) or Networked Blogs but you can also follow me via Bloglovin'.

Bloglovin' is super simple to use and really easy. You can build categories for the blogs you follow and what is even more exciting, you can import all the blogs you are now reading with Google Reader easily into Bloglovin'. Here is a detailed description on how you can do that.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Thursday, June 20, 2013

...in books

Review

The Sweetest Thing

by Jill Shalvis

You might want to read Simply Irresistible first

Otherwise this review might contain spoilers

First sentences:

“Muffin?” Tara asked as she walked along the long line of people waiting on the pier to enter Lucky Harbor's summer festival. “Have a free Life's-a-Peach Muffin?”

Summary:

Tara has a thousand good reasons not to return to the little coastal town of Lucky Harbor, Washington. Yet with her life doing a major crash-and-burn, anywhere away from her unfulfilled dreams and sexy ex-husband will do. As Tara helps her two sisters get their newly renovated inn up and running, she finally has a chance to get things under control and come up with a new plan for her life.
But a certain tanned, green-eyed sailor has his own ideas, such as keeping Tara hot, bothered . . . and in his bed. And when her ex wants Tara back, three is a crowd she can't control-especially when her deepest secret reappears out of the blue. Now Tara must confront her past and discover what she really wants. If she's lucky, she might just find that everything her heart desires is right here in Lucky Harbor.

source: Goodreads

My opinion:

The Sweetest Thing is book 2 in the Lucky Harbor series by Jill Shalvis and focuses in the story of Tara, the oldest of the three sisters running the new B&B in town.

After her marriage failed and her mother Phoebe died Tara came to Lucky Harbor to sell the family inn as quickly as possible but over the course of Simply Irresistible (Book 1-read my review here) Tara, Maddie and Chloe all fell in love with the inn and decided to keep it. They turned it into a B&B after Maddie and Chloe decided that they can't look at Tara working two jobs any longer.

When Tara was a teenager she spent her holidays with Phoebe in Lucky Harbor and something happened during one of those holidays that made her run as far away from the town as possible and to never come back. But now she is here and has to face her past and the guy she ran from.

Tara is a strong, independent woman who is trying to find herself after a bad divorce and has difficulties doing just that in a town where she is regularly reminded of a dark secret she's been carrying around with her for the last 17 years. Tara's the reasonable of the sisters but she can also be read quite clearly, like whenever she's stressed she turns to baking.

Her one weakness is Ford, the owner of the local bar, sailing champion and part of Tara's big secret she tried so hard to forget. But now with her staying in town and Ford being a beloved member of Lucky Harbor drama inevitable.

The Sweetest Thing is a highly entertaining and funny book with great characters and a story that made me fly through it in a day because I just wasn't able to put it down. Jill Shalvis' earned a place on my auto-buy list and I am looking forward to the next books in the series.

The books in the Lucky Harbor series are:

Simply Irresistible
The Sweetest Thing
Head Over Heels
Lucky In Love
At Last
Forever And A Day
Under The Mistletoe
It Had To Be You
Always On My Mind (expected publication: September, 2013)
Once Upon A Time (expected publication: February, 2014)

For more information about Jill Shalvis visit her Homepage, her Blog and her Facebook and Twitter page.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

...in books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish.

This week the girls want to know my

Top Ten Books At The Top Of My Summer TBR List

This summer I am planning to go on a series reading binge. I have a lot of series I started quite some time ago and never finished and now I can't really remember what exactly happened in the first one(s). So I decided to read a lot of them again from start to (hopefully) finish.

The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare

The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare

The Revenants series by Amy Plum

The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger

At Home with the Templetons by Monica McInerney

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

The Summer I turned pretty by Jenny Han

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass

Monday, June 17, 2013

...in pictures

This week's topic will be:

Berg / Mountain

Please link you post to mine in time.

Submission period is between the 17th and the 24th of June

(11:59 pm CET).

Sunday, June 16, 2013

...in books

Showcase Sunday is weekly meme hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits & Tea which was inspired by In My Mailbox from Kristie at The Story Siren.

It is a possibility for us to show what amazing books we got during the week.

I can't believe my last Showcase Sunday post was over a month ago and I am not so sure if didn't buy books during this month or if I was just to lazy to post Showcase Sunday posts (but I'm pretty sure I didn't buy that many books).

Last week I spent four amazing days in Berlin and as always when I am away, I bought books - many books! Today I want to show you which books were allowed to move in with me and unfortunately for some books but fortunately for my wallet some had to stay at the stores. I was able to control my book buying - a little bit! Shocking, I know! The books in this week's Showcase Sunday are a mixture of English and German books but I'll tell you the English title if the book was originally written in English.