Top Five Sundays: Book Quotes

Every week Larissa's Bookish Life hosts the Top 5 Sundays meme. Here's what you need to do:

1 - Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme she chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.
2 - Mention Larissa's blog on the post and link back to it.
3 - Feel free to use the Feature's image
4 - After you've finished your post, add you link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.
5 – If you don’t have a blog to post, just leave your list in the comments =)

This week’s theme is Favorite Book Quotes:

Now I collect quotes all the time. All sorts. About love and friendship and anything at all that strikes my fancy. I even collect book quotes about books. For me to pick my top five would be impossible. So, what I'll do is just pick out five from my current notebook of quotes.

1. ...love cannot be hidden: like any fire, it is revealed by smoke.
The Island of the Day Before (381)
~Umberto Eco

2. For better or worse, somebody has noticed you. And there's no way now to get yourself unnoticed.
Detective Samuel Pith
The Manual of Detection (6)
~Jedediah Berry

3. I have enough problems all on my own. No need to go out of my way looking for people who are only going to confuse me even more.
I Been There Before (33)
~David Carkeet

4. Everything was easier to cope with if you imagined it set afire and adrift at sea.
The War Against Miss Winter (9)
~Kathryn Miller Hays

5. He charmed me in the way that all true charmers do: he made me feel I was the only person who mattered to him.
Oscar Wilde & the Dead Man's Smile (68)
~Gyles Brandeth

Top Five Sundays: Books for Christmas

Every week Larissa's Bookish Life hosts the Top 5 Sundays meme. Here's what you need to do:

1 - Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme she chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.

2 - Mention Larissa's blog on the post and link back to it.
3 - Feel free to use the Feature's image
4 - After you've finished your post, add you link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.

5 – If you don’t have a blog to post, just leave your list in the comments =)

This week’s theme is Top Five Books I Want for Christmas:


1. Any of the Phryne Fisher mystery series by Kerry Greenwood. This is an absolutely marvelous series set in 1920s Australia. And I think of Phryne Fisher as the the grownup's Nancy Drew. I've read most of the series, but own none and would love to start collecting them.

2. I have long wanted to get my hands on Fergus Hume's 1893 mystery story The Mystery of a Hansom Cab. It's been on my list of gotta-haves almost as long as I've liked mysteries (and that's a long time!). Here's the synopsis: On the twenty-seventh day of July at the hour of twenty minutes to two o'clock in the morning a hansom cab drove up to the police station in Grey Street St. Kilda and the driver made the startling statement that his cab contained the body of a man who he had reason to believe had been murdered.

3. The Affair of the 39 Cufflinks by James Anderson: Who ever tires of the zany British country house murder? Lord Burford, for one. When his wife wants to allow nine guests to stay at their country home ("just for the night"). Lord Burford protests that the last time they had a large number of guests stay there had been unfortunate incidents. Lord Burford's misgivings were understandable. After all, the "unfortunate incidents" had been murders. But these people were travelling a long way for the funeral of an elderly relative. There was nowhere else for them to stay in the village, so the Earl really had to offer them accommodations at Alderley, the Burfords' Carolean mansion. Things started to go wrong when one of guests claimed she had knowledge that would ruin the others' reputations. But nobody took that seriously. Until, that is, she was found murdered...

The Affair of the 39 Cuff Links, lighthearted sequel to The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy and The Affair of the Mutilated Mink, delightfully captures the atmosphere of the 1930s country-house mystery. I absolutely adored the Egg Cosy and Mutilated Mink stories. I would love to get my hands on this one.


4. The Unfinished Clue by Georgette Heyer...one of the last Heyer mysteries needed to complete my reading of her work.

Synopsis (from Amazon): Sir Arthur Billington-Smith is not a nice person: he is arrogant, opinionated, and abusive. His verbal abuse makes life a constant misery for his hapless wife, Fay. One truly awful weekend when Fay is trying to host a house party, Arthur's son and heir, Geoffrey, brings home Lola de Silva, a Mexican cabaret dancer who is wonderfully obtuse, vastly colorful, and totally unsuitable as a future Lady Billington-Smith. Arthur is absolutely incensed and takes his rage out on everyone. Therefore, when he is found stabbed to death in his study later in the day, all those in the house become suspects.


5. Dorothy L. Sayer's Love All/Busman's Honeymoon by Alzina S Dale (ed) : (synopsis from Amazon review by "A Customer"): fans of Dorothy L Sayers' Vane-Wimsey novels will fine Love All a delightful change of pace. The companion play to the dramatic version of the novel Busman's Honeymoon in this edition, Love All takes a very different approach to male-female relations. While she creates for Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey a fulfilling personal and professional relationship in Busman's Honeymoon, Sayers suggests in Love All that women can find emotional fulfillment, financial security, and artistic challenges all on their own.

Why I want it: I love the writing of Sayers. So far, I have not found anything by her that I do not like. I've read all the Wimsey novels, including Busman's Honeymoon and I'm very curious to see/read the play version. I understand that there are some differences. I am also intrigued by the description of Love All and would like to check it out.


(No photo available for this one....which may mean that Santa will have a hard time finding it to put under my tree.....)

Top 5 Sundays: Fictional BFF

Every week Larissa's Bookish Life hosts the Top 5 Sundays meme. Here's what you need to do:

1 - Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme she chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.

2 - Mention Larissa's blog on the post and link back to it.
3 - Feel free to use the Feature's image
4 - After you've finished your post, add you link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.

5 – If you don’t have a blog to post, just leave your list in the comments =)

This week’s theme is Fictional Characters You Wish Were Your Best Friends.

1. Nancy Drew. So I could have all the fun of being involved in some really cool adventures...with the security of knowing that Nancy always finds a way out of tight spots.


2. Phryne Fisher (the grown up's Nancy Drew). Again terrific adventures with the added bonus of lots of good looking men hanging around. Phryne's adventures are a little more dangerous than Nancy's...but I'd risk it.


3. Henry Gamadge (from Elizabeth Daly's mysteries). This is a man who knows books. I'd want to be his friend so he could direct me to all the vintage mysteries I have on my list to own. Plus...again involvement in some pretty cool mysteries of his own.


4. Kate Fansler (from Amanda Cross's mysteries). Smart, witty, and loyal to her friends. One classy English professor. I love a woman who can reel off witty comments that make the men (and women alike) sit back and take notice.


5. Pam & Jerry North (from the Lockridge mystery series). Zany and madcap, Pam & Jerry know all the spots for shopping and dining in NYC. Good friends to have in the Big Apple.

Top Five Sundays: Vampires & Weres

Every week Larissa's Bookish Life hosts the Top 5 Sundays meme. Here's what you need to do:

1 - Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme she chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.
2 - Mention Larissa's blog on the post and link back to it.
3 - Feel free to use the Feature's image
4 - After you've finished your post, add you link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.

5 – If you don’t have a blog to post, just leave your list in the comments =)

This week’s theme is Top Five Vampires X Shape Shifters {Weres}.

Well, with the paranormal not exactly being my favorite kind of thing, this one was a bit more difficult for me. And I certainly can't come up with five favorite vampires PLUS five favorite shape-shifters {weres}. So my list shall be a mixed bag:





1. Count Dracula from Bram Stoker. My very first vampire



2. Carmilla from Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (creepy, female vampire)




3. Lord Maccon from the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger
4. Professor Lyall from same
5. Lord Akeldama from same.

As you can see...my paranormal reading is not all that wide and varied.

Added: I forgot a vampire! Saint-Germain from the Chelsea Yarbo series.

Top Five Sunday: Books That Shoud Be Movies

Every week Larissa's Bookish Life hosts the Top 5 Sundays meme. Here's what you need to do:

1 - Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme she chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.
2 - Mention Larissa's blog on the post and link back to it.
3 - Feel free to use the Feature's image
4 - After you've finished your post, add you link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.

5 – If you don’t have a blog to post, just leave your list in the comments =)

This week’s theme is Top Five Books That Should Be Made Into Movies!

1. The Lord Peter Wimsey books by Dorothy L Sayers. Now, I KNOW that the most of early books were done with Ian Carmichael in the role of Wimsey and then three of the Lord Peter/Harriet Vane books were done with Edward Petherbridge in the starring role. But these books have never been done right. By that, I mean starting with Whose Body? and ending with Busman's Honeymoon (neither of which have been properly filmed).


2. Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series. I'm not big on paranormal, but I absolutely love Lady Alexia!


3. Edmund Cripin's mysteries with Gervase Fen. I'm a sucker for academic mysteries.


4. Kerry Greenwood's mysteries with Phryne Fisher--the grown-up's Nancy Drew.


5. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. I don't care if any of his other books get made into movies (I didn't like them so well), but the Dante book is brilliant.

Top 5 Sundays: Favorite Halloween Movies

Every week Larissa's Bookish Life hosts the Top 5 Sundays meme. Here's what you need to do:

1 - Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme she chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.
2 - Mention Larissa's blog on the post and link back to it.
3 - Feel free to use the Feature's image
4 - After you've finished your post, add you link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.

5 – If you don’t have a blog to post, just leave your list in the comments =)

This week’s theme is Top Five Halloween (Scary) Movies.

Okay, I'll just admit it at the beginning...I'm a big weenie when it comes to scary movies. I've never seen (and have NO desire to...) Halloween or Friday the 13th or even Psycho. So, my list may seem a bit tame to a lot of you. I go more for suspense...

Top Five Sundays: Books You're Not Reading But Should Be

Every week Larissa's Bookish Life hosts the Top 5 Sundays meme. Here's what you need to do:

1 - Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme she chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.
2 - Mention Larissa's blog on the post and link back to it.
3 - Feel free to use the Feature's image
4 - After you've finished your post, add you link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.

5 – If you don’t have a blog to post, just leave your list in the comments =)

This week’s theme is Top Five Books You're Not Reading But Should Be.

At first I was a bit confused by this...I thought it was supposed to be books on MY TBR list that were guilting me...that I should be reading. But, then I realized, that we're supposed to list books that we love that we think everybody should be reading. (And why aren't you??? That's what I'd like to know.) Here's my list:

#5 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. A classic that everyone should read. I'm a bit ashamed that I only got around to it this Fall. Never had to read it in school.

#4 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Heartbreaking. But an absolutely authentic story of growing up black in the 30s and 40s.

#3 The Deanna Raybourn Lady Jane Grey series. Start with Silent in the Grave and work your way through.
#2 The Gail Carriger series. Start with Soulless. Never thought I'd be into werewolves and vampires and steampunk until I stumbled onto this series.

#1 Dorothy L Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. Strong Poison if you read none of the others. But to start Whose Body? and go from there.

Top 5 Sundays (#9): Best Disney Movies

Every week Larissa's Bookish Life hosts the Top 5 Sundays meme. Here's what you need to do:

1 - Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme I chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.
2 - Mention Larissa's blog on the post and link back to it.
3 - Feel free to use the Feature's image
4 - After you've finished your post, add you link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.

5 – If you don’t have a blog to post, just leave your list in the comments =)

This week’s theme is Best Disney Movies!

Hope you have fun too!

After much deliberation (there are SO many great Disney films), here are mine:

#5: Mary Poppins: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and dancing penguins. A spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. Popping in and out of chalk pictures. What more could anyone want?

#4: The Parent Trap: The ORIGINAL with Hayley Mills. I'll just say right now, up front--I don't like remakes. It's one of my prejudices and since it's such a harmless one I'm not ashamed of it. The end where they go camping is one of my favorite parts.

#3: The Aristocats: This is such a fun, jazzy Disney movie. Love it, love it, love it!



#2: 101 Dalmatians: Again, the ORIGINAL, animated version. I also have a real problem with taking something I have loved in animated form (Dalmatians, Scooby-Doo, Underdog, you name it) and trying make it live action or computer animated, meant to look like live action. Leave my loves alone! I love this one not only for the Dalmatians...but Cruella De Vil. She's so nasty.



#1: The Emperor's New Groove: This is one of the few movies that can send me into paroxysms of laughter every single time I watch it. It doesn't matter how many times I see the scene where the kids and their mom are harassing Yzma (culminating with her being all gooed up & feathered and used as a pinata)...I laugh till my sides hurt.


So, how about you? What are your favorite Disney movies?

Top Five Sundays: Favorite Childhood TV Series

Larissa at Larissa's Bookish Life invites us this Sunday to list our top five childhood TV series. What shows had you glued to the TV when you were growing up?

1. The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. I lived for these. Not only had I devoured all the books, but I had the most intense crush on Shaun Cassidy. And there he was...every week.
2. Scooby Doo Mysteries. I loved those "meddling kids" and all the crazy adventures they got into.
3. Remington Steele. Suave, sophisticated. Funny. Great interactions between the main characters. And Pierce Brosnan...I've been swooning over him ever since.
4. Happy Days. What's not to like about the Fonz?
5. WKRP in Cincinnati. I will never forget Les Nesman's report on the tornadoes. Using a Cold War era "what to do if the Russians invade" and replacing "Russians" with the word "tornadoes." And Johnny's visit to the hospital. "Follow the red line until you get to the green line. If it crosses the blue line you have to go back to the yellow...." or some such nonsense.


I