I'm Back

Wait! You say. You were gone?

Yes, yes I was. Awhile ago, Author2Author's Tip of the Day was about how grown-ups need to listen to the advice we give to kids online. We tell kids all the time not to give out too much personal information, but then we blather on and on about when we're going on vacation. It's not that hard to Google where a blogger lives, and then they'll ROB YOU. And, that's actually happened. So, I kept a little mum. Not a full lid (and I did tweet about watching Obama's speech from the airport. I didn't tweet how nice the toilet in the Air France lounge is though. I'm telling you know, because it had a heated seat! With a control pad in the wall. Also, a built in bidet) but I pre-scheduled some posts and didn't say "HI! I'M GOING ON VACATION." Even though Dan did post a picture of me with the name of the city where I was.

So, where was I?



Well, we flew to Paris! Were we spent 5 hours running around the city. They had an entire bookstore of just manga!



Here's a gratuitous shot of Notre Dame:


Then we visited friends in Bristol before taking the train over to London. Guess the station:



That would be Paddington.

We spent the weekend in Croydon, where Jen and Rich got married!



I wore a fascinator! Because that's what British ladies do at weddings:



They got married at the Croydon Clocktower in a beautiful old library room:



With beautiful stained glass:



But, the Clocktower has the actual public library in it, too:





It was awesome.

Then, on the way home, at Heathrow, I saw a display of something and just couldn't resist and had to buy and read...



So, more reviews to come this week, as soon as a I figure out what day it is.

I'm Back!

Didja miss me? I'm jetlagged and have a ton of stuff to do for school in the next few weeks, so I might be hit or miss... but here's some book related vacay pics.

The Book Bazaar in Istanbul (located by the Grand Bazaar). Lots of art, lots of books. Cooler if you read Turkish.

The Austrian National Library in part of the expansive Hofburg Palace. (Talk about Shock and Awe!)

Vacay!

Pooh. After Alyson Noel commented here, on my own little blog, the day after I reviewed her Art Geeks and Prom Queens, I've had a slightly over infated sense of self. And as such, I was really hoping that Bloomsbury read my plea for an "I am Kiki Strike" T-Shirt and they would have contacted me by now. *sigh*

In other, better news, tomorrow night I am leaving and am spending the next week in fantabulous (at least, I hope it will be) Istanbul (not Constantinople). (Yes, we are spending Turkey day IN TURKEY. HA!) I have been saving all 1024 pages of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell for this trip, but I'm starting to think that will all that airplane time, it will not be enough. So... what else to take? Do I take the reading I have to do, knowing I will burn through it? Or take some of the big, thick inviting tomes that have been waiting patiently for me, such as Big Breasts & Wide Hips? How much suitcase room can I devote to books anyway? Who needs underwear? I'm well read.

Last night I finishedThe Truth about Forever and it was perfectly fine. To put it in Macy's words, it was fine. Just fine.

And becaue of that, it was so dissapointing because the whole time it was perched on the edge of earth-shattering greatness... and it just never got there.

Macy's dad died a year and a half ago and she and her mother have never fully grieved. Her perfect boyfriend is spending the summer at Brain Camp and dumps her over email. (Wait, they're on a break.) Her co-workers at the library and bitchy and hate her. Then she starts hanging out with the Wish Catering crew and working for them after work and everything starts to change...

Well written, it stayed safe and predictable and it was really good, but so close to being so much better and just lacking that je ne said quoi that in the end, I can muster now more than a "meh".