Mailbox Monday

It's that time again - time for me to report on my inability to stop acquiring books. It was a rather successful week in my quest to own every book in the world - here's the haul:


These are all ARC's I apparently requested, although there are a couple I honestly don't remember. Sweetsmoke is a LibraryThing Early Reviewer Book, so I will try to get to it fairly quickly. Acedia and Me by Kathleen Norris and The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell are very exciting - they are two of my favorite non-fiction authors, and I've read a lot of their work already.
When We Were Romans has been getting a lot of buzz, so I'm excited to get into that one. The last three - The Necklace, The Shiniest Jewel, and The Terminal Spy, I don't actually remember requesting, which leads my to believe I might be getting a little out of control with this whole process. We'll see what happens with those - I'm a little skeptical about whether or not I will actually enjoy them. And now for the second round:




These are all from one of the bookswapping sites that I am addicted to. I actually do excercise a little bit of self-control there - I only request books that I've already read and loved, or books that have been recommended to me that my library doesn't carry. However, they do seem to be stacking up as well. I think I might truly be addicted to acquiring more books - thank heavens it's not dangerous to my health, because I don't think I'm going to be able to stop!

Thanks to Marcia at The Printed Page for hosting this again this week. What did you get in your mailbox? Share with us - it's almost like therapy!

Confessions of the girl with no impulse control

So, I caved. I was completely prepared to wait until my friend Becky had read the final book in the Twilight series, and then borrow it from her. I knew it would be hard to wait, but I had my plan, and I was ready. Until I stopped by Target last night, and there is was, all pretty and shiny, and ON SALE. I swear, I heard it call my name.

So now, less than 24 hours later, I've just finished part 2, the Jacob section, and all I can say is WTF??? In the best possible way. I will admit to feeling a little smug after part 1 - I knew something crazy was going to go down, and before I started reading, I had a couple of ideas - and part 1 was EXACTLY one of my ideas. So I was all proud of myself, and a little let down, that I had figured out the big twist. And then came part 2. HOLY CRAP!! Seriously, I had to give myself a breather, because I was so completely caught off guard. What a brilliant path for Meyer to take. I am so loving this......

Congratulations!

I am still choked up - yep, I'm that much of a dork. But much love and congratulations to Joshua Allen, the winner of So You Think You Can Dance. *cue cheers and applause!*
The top four were all such beautiful dancers that any of them could have been the winner, and I was happy they gave a prize to the top female dancer, Katee. It was such an amazing season - I really can't imagine another group of dancers that will grab my heart the way these kids have. I almost don't want to watch next season - but I'm sure I will, because I can't help myself.

Now it's on to the Olympics, and here in Des Moines we are awfully proud of our two hometown girls, Shawn Johnson and LoLo Jones, who will be competing for gold this year. The last time I watched the Olympics, my husband and I were in St. Lucia on our honeymoon - the view was considerably better there than from my couch, but I think Olympic season will always be special for us because of those memories.

On a personal, and completely sappy note, today is my fourth wedding anniversary. I've never had a moment of regret for marrying the man I chose, and I'm proud of that. Of course we aren't perfect, but we sure are good together, and I can't imagine loving anyone more. Happy Anniversary, hon!