March summary

I really need to tune down the frequency with which I'm buying new books! Three months in and I already got 22 books more than I actually read. Maybe I'm a hopeless case? I mean, I pre-ordered 4 books this month alone - and I'm glad they won't arrive until later this year...

new additions
36) Toni Morrison: A Mercy
37) Kate Atkinson: When Will There Be Good News?
38) Ally Carter: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy
39) Lauren Oliver: Before I Fall
40) C.J. Omololu: Dirty Little Secrets
41) J.T. Ellison: The Cold Room
42) Lionel Shriver: Double Fault
43) Susan Beth Pfeffer: Life As We Knew It
44) Lionel Shriver: Double Fault
45) Khaled Hosseini: The Kite Runner
46) Laura Kinsale: Flowers from the Storm
47) Becca Wilhite: My Ridiculous, Romantic Obsessions
48) J.T. Waldman: Megillat Esther
49) P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast: Hunted
50) David Ebershoff: The 19th Wife
51) Justina Chen Headley: North of Beautiful
52) Alan Fox: The Seeker in Forever

read
21) Jill Shalvis: Instant Gratification
22) P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast: Chosen
23) Tzipi Caton: Miracle Ride
24) Becca Wilhite: My Ridiculous, Romantic Obsessions
25) Michele Wahlder: Alphatudes
26) Melissa De La Cruz: Blue Bloods
27) Melissa De La Cruz: Masquerade
28) Ally Carter: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy
29) John Boyne: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
30) J.T. Waldman: Megillat Esther

New background color

Now, I realize I still have to write the review - once I have finished my term paper - but I figured I'd change the background color for my blog first. I hope you like it! I think it is easier to read now.

Do you agree?

best laid plans...

Now, I had planned to write a review today, for either the first Gallagher Girl book (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls)), and maybe even the second one (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls)). But the best laid plans...

Now granted, we changed to summer time this weekend, so I'm missing an hour and yet I was up and about at 6:30am (technically 5:30am *shudder*) and I was awake! The shock! The horror! I was so awake, I spent more time at work than I had originally planned, because I decided (pretty much on a whim) that I would stay home tomorrow to finish up my term paper. Now, I left work, went to university got myself some numeric list (very, very important, because without it I can't print out the confirmation that I'm still a student - necessary for health insurance, bank stuff etc.). Once I was done I took the subway home with two short stops to do some grocery shopping for the week. As soon as I was home I started the cooking and well, I won't invite anyone in my kitchen until this battlefield is cleaned up again! At least, I had a delicious dinner (lamb, mazzot and a couple other things)! And I even have two more dishes ready for the next days: I made a big portion of my Grandma's potato salad. I just hope it is at least close to her recipe! Because then it will be delicious!

Anyway, the best laid plans fell right through. I spent hours between the kitchen (to prepare said 3 meals) and my computer to talk to a good friend. And once I was done with dinner (after 9pm), I was too tired to concentrate on anything else. Now, I'm really sorry! But as my room mate put it: "This is the first time in ages that you cook something from scratch." Far too often, I'm afraid, I'm too tired when I come home from work / university / both, so I just whip something up real quick and voilà - dinner in 5 minutes! *sigh*

I will try to give you the two reviews as soon as I'm done with my term paper!

In My Mailbox Monday (Mar 28)

In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books I found in my mailbox and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie. To join in, please visit Kristi's blog!

Mailbox Mondays is a weekly event hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page. To join, please visit her blog!

This week was fairly quiet with only two books:


I finally got my copy of North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley! I can't wait to read it, but for now, there's so much more I have to read, it will be a while until I get to it.


And I got The Seeker in Forever by the author himself, Alan Fox. Thanks a lot! I'm curious about it :-)

The Book List: Books you loved as a child (Mar 23)

The Book List Meme is a weekly event hosted by Rebecca @ Lost In Books.

This week's theme is about books you loved as a child.

My picks are:

1) pretty much anything Enid Blyton (plus the later books here in Germany in order to continue her series)

2) Agatha Christie (I started reading those pretty early on!)

3) Tais Teng's YA horror novels

Hidden Treasures (April through May)

Well, it is time for the second Hidden Treasures! For this, I will let you look at my Mt. TBR again and the first one to pick a book for me and post it in the comments will have picked the book for me to read within the next two months. Basically, the idea is that we all have so many unread books, there must be some hidden treasures we keep ignoring or missing. If you want to join in and have someone pick a book for you, just leave a link in the comments.

Thanks to Wendy @ Caribousmom, I even have a wonderful button for this event. Thanks a lot, Wendy!

The first time you picked Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun and Charlaine Harris' Dead Until Dark for me. I didn't finish Half of a Yellow Sun, as I couldn't get into the story, no matter how far I read (I managed to get to page 100, which is unusal for me), but I'm still working on Dead Until Dark and so far I enjoy it a lot! The second time around, I got The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, which I have yet to review, but I am planning something for April, so bear with me!

So, for this time, you can pick a book from my TBR list. I'm curious to see what you'll pick!

An award!

Secret Dreamworld of a Bookaholic received a wonderful award - and from two different bloggers at that! So a big, fat THANKS to Trillian and Stacy :-)

• Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
  
• Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.
  
• Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I am passing this award along to:

Sherry
Ann-Kat
Wings
Jenn
Kristen
The Bookette
Chaviva - she may not be a book blogger, but she has an awesome blog and is a wonderful person! (And Mazel tov on the upcoming wedding, by the way!)

Book Review: Alphatudes by Michele Wahlder

Author	Michele Wahlder
Title	Alphatudes - The Alphabet of Gratitude
Publisher	Life Possibilities Publishing
Date of Publication	January 15, 2010
Page Count	111
ISBN	978-0-9823645-0-5

I'm still not sure how I'm going to write the review for this one. It is obviously non-fiction, with the purpose to help people realize the positive things in life. I recieved this review copy from Rebecca from The Cadence Group and I'm really glad. Rebecca's mail came at a time when I was really annoyed with life in general and when I read that it was based on the alphabet I decided to read one chapter a day and let it sink. I wanted to take the most out of it, not knowing that the author suggested to read the entire book and then go back to those points the reader would like to improve.

Now, I think the layout is awesome! Each chapter starts with the basic principle, like Joy for J and a short quote about it - all on a double page with the most awesome pictures ever! I in fact missed my train a time or two just because I was so enthralled with the pictures! After this there's one page where Michele Wahlder explains precisely, what she means by the principle before she offers a prayer-like paragraph one can use to focus on it. Now it might sound a bit preachy or religious for those who are not at home with any specific religion, but I can assure you that it does not come across too preachy.

Reading the book helped me realize how I can manipulate myself for the worse, so I really hope I can use the suggestions made by Michele Wahlder. I found it helpful to see the small things in life we can be grateful for and think that we all might not always see the positive in all situations. I will let you know later this year if I could make good use of them - or whether I was too weak, too much of a push-over to go through with it! But I'll keep the book off of my shelves for future references, especially because I took a bunch of notes and have tons of sticky notes to mark pages.

One last thing I should mention: Olivia Newton-John has a song out which those who buy Alphatudes can download for free. You might not know it (yet), but I absolutely love her - ever since I saw Grease and absolutely fell in love with that movie (and her voice)! And for this I have to thank my music teachers who went the extra miles to have a band, an orchestra, two choirs and a few other voluntary groups at my high school. I was a member of our choir from 6th grade on and never left. In fact, I even got the permission to return for another year after I changed schools. And it all started with Grease!

In My Mailbox Monday (Mar 21)

In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books I found in my mailbox and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie. To join in, please visit Kristi's blog!

Mailbox Mondays is a weekly event hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page. To join, please visit her blog!

As I forgot to write my post last week, I'll give you a run-down of what I got during the last two weeks. Therefore the list will be a bit longer and without pictures.

Double Fault: A Novel by Lionel Shriver - I got this for the THIB 20 Minute Book Club Challenge and am reading it right now. It is my first book by Lionel Shriver and so far I really enjoy it.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, which I bought for my online book club. We'll be reading it in April, so it is on my very, very short stack and does not fall in my general rule to read older books first.

Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale is another book for the THIB 20 Minute Book Club Challenge. I hope I can read this in time so I can call in and discuss along with Nicole, Kate and whoever else calls in.

My Ridiculous, Romantic Obsessions by Becca Wilhite - and here I admit right out: I've already finished it! It was so cute and I absolutely love the cover. I enjoyed it a lot.

Megillat Esther by J.T. Waldman. I'm curious about this as it is the Book of Esther in graphic novel form.

Hunted (House of Night Novels) by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast - I have the first four and as I somehow rush through these books and only had one left, I ordered this one to have one more in stock, just in case!

The 19th Wife: A Novel by David Ebershoff is a book I won from the wonderful Wendy. I first heard about The 19th Wife in a Books on the Nightstand podcast and I hope to read this sooner rather than later!

Look who's won!

While I realize I still have to post the next podcast review (it is almost finished, but I was too tired today, sorry!), I at least wanted to give you the winners of my 50 Followers Contest. But first I would like to thank everyone who participated and answered my short blog improvement question. I will keep your suggestions in mind and hopefully find a way to implement a few more things.

To give you a quick reminder of what was up for grabs:

1. Courtney Summers: Cracked Up To Be (paperback)
   
2. Poppy Z. Brite: Lost Souls (paperback)
   
3. Laurie Halse Anderson: Speak (paperback)
   
4. Sam Savage: Firmin (paperback)
   
5. Gareth P. Jones: The Thornthwaite Inheritance (paperback)
   
6. Rachel Ward: Numbers (paperback - British edition)
   
7. C.J. Omololu: Dirty Little Secrets (hardcover)
   
8. Carrie Ryan: The Forest of Hands and Teeth (hardcover - British edition)
   
9. Suzanne Young: The Naughty List (paperback)
   
10. Lindsey Leavitt: Princess for Hire (paperback)

But now, without further ado:

The winners are

Courtney from Stiletto Storytime

Wrighty from Wrighty's Reads

Lover of Books

Sara from YA Vampire Books

Carol from Carol's Notebook

Please contact me as fast as possible. I'll give the books away on a first come first serve basis. You can write me here. Just send me the titles of the 3 books you'd like the most and your address.

Note on the side: As I have mentioned in my previous post, I will unplug for a day starting tomorrow, Friday at 6:15pm CET and won't be back before Saturday at 7:30pm, so don't worry if I don't answer right away.

Unplugged for a day!

I'll be away for a day. Well, I won't really be going anywhere, but I will unplug for a day. I've spent day and good parts of the night on or near the computer during the past months and I have been exhausted for quite a while now. (Hence the bad blogging on my part, sorry about that!)

I realize I have tons of stuff to do and I haven't even posted a Mailbox Monday this week, but I didn't have the energy left. It's sad!

So I just stumbled across a great idea and I'll participate. The idea is to unplug from everything for a day. To be exact, this day will be Shabbat, so it starts Friday evening going through Saturday evening. The times for me would be:

Beginning 6:10pm CET on Friday and ending 7:30pm CET on Saturday (give or take a few minutes).

It is something Orthodox Jews know by heart and do every single week (and on a number of holidays), and I think it is a wonderful idea. In this day and age, I think we're being ruled by technical gadgets and I feel anxious when I don't have my phone or my computer around. It is a sad state and maybe with this I can overcome the negative feelings for at least one day a week to recharge my batteries and get some reading done.

I doubt I will stay away from every technical gadget at all during this time, but I will do my best to keep at least the majority of them at a distance. For me this whole idea means:

• no computer
  
• no phone
  
• max. 2 hours of TV (I tend to distract myself with TV when I'm at my parents' and have nothing else to do - especially because I don't have a TV at my place)

Wish me luck! I'll be going cold turkey...

The background story can be found at Sabbath Manifesto and I also found a nice video where some of the participants explain a bit about it:

blame game time (March 12)

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

It is time for another blame game! I realized I skipped the last week or so, but with my cat and everything, I was too distraught to remember... The blame game was first done by Chris from Stuff As Dreams Are Made On.

Steph Su from Steph Su Reads earns a point for Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien. I seem to have a thing for dystopic fiction lately...

Kristi from The Story Siren gets a point for Stupid Cupid by Rhonda Stapleton. It sounds like a hilarious read for when I need to relax.

Alyce from At Home With Books talked about I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali.

Reading For A Cure - I'm in, are you?

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!



I have come to the conclusion that I would like to join Wendy's Reading For A Cure for Childhood Cancer. I am reading a book about a 16-year old cancer patient right now (as it is autobiographical, I know said girl survived), so this might be just the right time to join in. I am not yet sure just which level of participation I should choose, so for the time being I'll pick one month. I can still add another month (and another) later.

This is really a great thing Wendy has created there, and I think I will donate 5 Euros for every other book I read (I'm a student and if I really do the entire year I'll have finished over 100 books, so I have to keep it at a reasonable amount).

What about you? Are you already Reading For A Cure or will you still be joining in? Do it, it is a great cause and once you've read Wendy's facts, you'll likely be as shocked as I was.

What I'm up to...

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

So, right now I'm a bit - read waaaaaay - behind in reviews. I hope to use Sunday for that, though, especially because I have read some great books. I'm also still somewhat busy with my term papers (due March 31) and preparations for my blogiversary in April.

In the mean time, if you have already checked out my giveaway (see above), you might want to check out Extreme Reader's Mega Swag and More Giveaway. There are some really cool things she is giving away!

The Book List: Books that take you back to High School (Mar 9)

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!



The Book List Meme is a weekly event hosted by Rebecca @ Lost In Books.

This week's theme is about books that take you back to high school.

My picks are:

1) John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men

2) Jay Asher: 13 Reasons Why

3) Sophie Kinsella: Can You Keep A Secret?

I picked the books for the following reasons:

We read Of Mice and Men in school. 13 Reasons Why reminds me a lot in my time at school. And Can You Keep A Secret? is one of the many books I read during English lessons (without my teacher objecting).

New layout and new header

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

As you probably already realized, I have a new blog template and a new header. I completely forgot to mention this yesterday. Sorry!

My awesome brother helped me with the header and I think it's awesome. In fact, he even helped me with a button, which you can grab if you want. You can find it in the right-hand bar. (If you do, let me know so I can return the favor!) I really like my new button, especially because it's my sweetie reading *wink*

Also, this blog now has its own Facebook page, just in case you're curious!

Secret Dreamworld of a Bookaholic

Promote Your Page Too

Oh, and Kathrin Dreamworld Ofa Bookaholic - that would be me!

50 Followers Contest - now with 5 winners!

Well, I told you I'd add 1 more winner and therefore 2 more books to my contest once my blog reached 99 followers. Now we're at 101, so we would have 4 winners who get two books each, but I'm feeling funny today, so let's up this to 5 winners.

The books are:

1. Courtney Summers: Cracked Up To Be
   
2. Poppy Z. Brite: Lost Souls
   
3. Laurie Halse Anderson: Speak
   
4. Sam Savage: Firmin
   
5. Gareth P. Jones: The Thornthwaite Inheritance
   
6. Rachel Ward: Numbers
   
7. C.J. Omololu: Dirty Little Secrets
   
8. Carrie Ryan: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
   
9. Suzanne Young: The Naughty List
   
10. Lindsey Leavitt: Princess for Hire

Except for Dirty Little Secrets these are all paperbacks.

The giveaway is open internationally and will end March 17, 2010!

To enter the contest fill out this form!

In My Mailbox Monday (Mar 7)

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books I found in my mailbox and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie. To join in, please visit Kristi's blog!

Mailbox Mondays is a weekly event hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page. To join, please visit her blog!

I am a bit disappointed in myself. I wanted to not buy any books until I had at least finished all the books from January. But then I met a good friend on Thursday (March 4) and on our way from university to Starbucks we came across a book store. That's how the story goes, right?

Anyway, it's a small indie and they always have two boxes of marked down books right outside, so we decided to just sift through them, not really expecting to find anything. Right! Sure! Whom were we kidding anyway?



A Mercy by Toni Morrison - acually, we both got a copy because one of our professors had mentioned (and recommended) it during a class on American Lit and Culture (the beginnings up until 1820), so when we saw two copies in the boxes it was clear we would get them.



When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson was also in those boxes and I remembered a review I read a while ago (no clue where, but once I find it I'll link back).

And while we were having our coffee I got a text message with the information that I could pick up a package at a "Packstation" (sort of like a PO box, only they're distributed all over the place and you can access each and everyone with a card and a PIN). That's when I got the following three books:



Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter is the second in the Gallagher School series and I finished the first one short before I ordered the 2nd (and pre-ordered the 3rd). I can't wait to read it!



Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver - I admit it, I caved. I wanted to wait until it is out in paperback, but in the end... Well, I'll get to it soon, I guess. In - oh! 25 books *sigh*



Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu - just because!



The Cold Room by J.T Ellison is a book the wonderful Marcia from The Printed Page sent me so I could also enjoy it. Thank you sooo much!

Book Blogger Blog Hop

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

Jen over at Crazy For Books has started something I hope you will be part of.

Hey book bloggers! Every day I seem to find another book blog that I start following. In the spirit of the Friday Follow, I thought it would be cool to do a Book Blog Hop to give us all bookies a chance to connect and find new blogs that we may be missing out on!

Now, I follow a lot of blogs and I haven't seen this feature yet, so if someone else is doing a Book Blog Hop, please let me know!! I don't want to step on any toes or anything!

So, if you'd like to participate, just repost this, sign MckLinky, and check out other blogs in MckLinky! Let's connect and make new book bloggy friends!!

I'll try to make a nifty graphic to go along with this, but give me another week to get that done! :)

Go on and check it out if you're a book blogger or if you just like to read about books online!

Dear Anonymous Spammer

A short break from book-ish stuff for a public service announcement and a letter:

Dear Anonymous Spammer,

Leave! Do it now! Do NOT come back here ever again! I'm tired of rejecting your comments (13 so far today). In fact, you won't be able to comment here anymore until you get yourself registered and even then I will have to approve your sh*t, which I (obviously) won't do. I have no interest whatsoever in helping you promote your sh**ty money making software or whatever it is. Just leave. Shoo! Go! Do NOT return!

Sorry, everyone else, but until jerk-dumbass-idiot (see, I'm trying to stay semi-polite) leaves, I won't turn anonymous commenting back on. If you want to leave me a note, check out my mail or the various other ways to contact me.

Sincerely (but without any patience),
Me

Geeky Me?

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

So, the past two Wednesdays I posted about one particular podcast I really enjoyed, but I can't possibly fill all Wednesdays with podcast reviews (there's only so much time I have). Instead, I decided to give you some more insight into me (as the "me" usually falls short, except for my reading and my opinion on what I read) in this feature I tentatively called Geeky Me. I'd love it if you told me what you think about this idea, so comment away!

As a few of you might know, I am a student at the university in Frankfurt/Main, Germany (it is named after a famous German writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, by the way). Our studies are in parts still rather different from the American and British (and most other) systems. I started out early enough to still get my Magister Artium (M.A.) without having to get a Bachelor degree first. Another difference is that I have one major and two minors (although I could also have picked two majors without a minor). When I have my M.A., I can apply to a program for a doctorate degree - if my grades are good enough, that is. So much for the back story!

Now, my major is American Studies, which in essence is a combination of (U.S.-)American Literature, Linguistics/Language, Culture, Politics and History. It covers such a broad range of subjects I will have to specialize in two of them after about 4 semesters (in about a year from now). Last semester I took a class on literature and culture from the first settlers until about 1820. I knew so little about this time, it was surprising. Granted, I knew about the historical aspects, but the literature? There is so much out there, I'm still amazed and I can't wait for the second part (1820 until maybe 1865? That would go with the Norton Anthology.)! In fact, I have decided that I would like to see whether I can read at least one text from the Norton Anthology each month during the semester and two when we don't have classes. (Care to join me?)

And my minors are Romance Studies (capital R for the Romance), but I have yet to decide on whether I'd rather study Italian or French in depth, and Comparative Religion. I love languages a lot, there's no other way to say this, as I would (in theory) be able to survive in a number of countries while using the official languages. (More about that later, if you like the Geeky Me.)

So, I have yet to decide whether I'd rather keep myself busy with the Italian language and literature or the French language and literature. Last semester I took a few classes in French lit and next semester I'll take a class in Italian lit and two language classes. I have been both to France and Italy in the past (like, before 2003), and I enjoyed both vacations a lot, so that's no help either. I tend to prefer Italian contemporary literature more than I do French literature, but I really love French playwright Molière and know practically nothing about Italian classics. You see, it will be a tough call!

And Comparative Religion was an easy decision. I did not grow up overly religious. When my brother and I were younger, Mom used to drag us to church every other week when she wasn't working Sundays, but even for her it was mostly because it was how she grew up (her Dad used to say that they can stay up on weekends, but who can party on Saturday can go to church on Sunday). At least that's how it came across. Now, in Germany we also have (mandatory) religion classes each year, so you (or rather your parents) can choose whether you attend Catholic religion class, Protestant religion class or Ethics. These classes fill two hours each week and you have to take them 1st through 13th grade - there's no way around it! (Note: Today, some schools offer classes for students of other religions as well, if enough people take part, but back in my days and in my previous schools there just weren't enough students for these classes.)
Now, with little knowledge, I always enjoyed the 5-7 weeks every other year that we spent learning about other belief systems. It was fascinating and it was one of the few subjects I actually looked up at the library and later online. So when it came the time for me to pick a 2nd minor, it was an easy choice. And here I am enjoying classes about all different beliefs (last semester: organ donation with a Jewish perspective).

By the way, some of you commented on the size of the writing on my blog and I totally agree! It is a bit on the small side, so I hope this is better. Just let me know those little things. Sometimes I miss them. (More often than not, actually! *sigh*)

update on 50 Followers contest

So, I have just decided to add two more books (and thus one more winner) to my 50 follower giveaway should I reach 99 followers. The books in question are:

C.J. Omololu's Dirty Little Secrets

and

Rachel Ward's Numbers (the British paperback edition)

You can find the button to follow me at the bottom of this page, and to join the contest please visit the original 50 followers contest page.

Do you think we can do this? Spread the word :-)

The Book List: Best / Worst Sidekicks to a Hero in a Book

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!



The Book List Meme is a weekly event hosted by Rebecca @ Lost In Books.

This week's theme is about the best and worst sidekicks to a hero.

My picks for best sidekicks are:

1) Zoey's friends (is this considered cheating?) in P.C. Cast und Kristin Cast's House of Night series

2) Ron and Hermoine in the Harry Potter series

3) Charlie, Jace's sidekick in D.D. Barant's Dying Bites

I couldn't come up with any really horribly bad sidekicks...