Top Ten Tuesdays - Ten books I am excited to read in 2012

This is part of a meme hosted by THE BROKE AND THE BOOKISH

So - which ten books am I excited to read this year?

Well.. Maybe not excited - but I am for sure looking forward to read them:

1. THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett (2009)

~ love the colours of this cover.. ~

2. MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY by Winifred Watson (1938)

~ I love the Italian cover.. ~

3. LADY SINGS THE BLUES by Billie Holiday (1956)

~ This is such a great cover.. love this handwriting style.. ~

4. THE WINTER OF HER DISCONTENT by Kathryn Miller Haines (2008)

~ even the cover is a mystery.. ~

5. DIANA DORS : HURRICANE IN MINK by David Bret (2010)

~ wonderful, glamourous cover.. ~

6. ANATOMY OF A MURDER by Robert Traver (1958)

7. MOULIN ROUGE by Pierre La Mure (1950)

~ yay for vintage cover!! ~

8. FINGERSMITH by Sarah Waters (2002)

9. ROSEMARIE NITRIBITT : AUTOPSIE EINES DEUTSCHEN SKANDALS (= which you could translate into "Autopsy of a German scandal") by Christian Steiger (2007) - A non-fiction book about a German callgirl who was murdered in 1957

~ pretty daring Miss Nitribitt, hm? ~

10. THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF MAF THE DOG AND OF HIS FRIEND MARILYN MONROE by Andrew O'Hagan (2010)

~ I like this cover.. It's kind of retro.. ~

So - any books you're looking forward to read?

Thank you for reading (at all and especially this blog..)

Yours

Irene

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Adaptations

This meme is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.

This week's topic is The Ten Best Book to Movie Adaptations - and that's quite the right topic for me! :") (Maybe you do know that I also host a classic film blog @ And then they start to sparkle ..)

So here are my Top Ten in a not particular order:

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen and the BBC Adaptation with Colin Firth.

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY by Jane Austen and the adaptation with Alan Rickman *ahem*

HOW TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD by Harper Lee and the adaptation with Gregory Peck

THE SNAKE PIT by Mary Jane Ward and the adaptation with Olivia de Havilland

MILDRED PIERCE by James M. Cain and the adaptation with Joan Crawford - though the film has a murder in it (actually the whole story in the film is about who done it) and the book is more of a woman-finds-her-own-way-during-the-Great-Depression-story. I like both very much.

DOUBLE INDEMNITY by James M. Cain and the adaptation with Barbara Stanwyck, because Stany is great!

REBECCA by Daphne Du Maurier and the adaptation by Hitchcock.

NORTH AND SOUTH by Elizabeth Gaskell and the BBC adaptation with Richard Armitage *ahem, again*

DRACULA by Bram Stoker and the Francis Ford Coppola adaptation with Gary Oldman *AHEM, AHEM, AHEM*

PEYTON PLACE by Grace Metalious and the adaptation with Lana Turner (I LOVE Lana Turner!!)

Ask me again in five minutes - and I will name 10 other titles.. Yes, I am addicted to films! ;")

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Favourite Love Stories

This meme is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week it is about: The Top Ten Favourite Love Stories (you might have guessed it - I should something about my entrances..)

I am no specialist in love stories - I read Jane Austen because of the humour. Please, do not throw books at me because of that!

If I grab a romance book because of the love story it is a clear sign that I am going to be ill. - esp. the flu makes me feel romantic - in a bookish way,- silly! ;")

Here are my Top Ten Favourite Love Stories - in no particular order:

1. AIMÉE & JAGUAR by Erica Fischer - a true love storie between a jewish woman and the wive of a Wehrmachts-soldier in WWII - heartbreaking!

2. THE CONVENIENT MARRIAGE by Georgette Heyer - the heroine Horatia is very brave and has a stutter! (I love that - she is so adorable!) She saves her sister from an unwanted marriage by proposing to the bridegroom to be by herself - and of course they fall for each other.

3. Col. Brandon and Marianne Dashwood from SENSE AND SENSIBILITY by Jane Austen (I think it is a bit because of Alan Rickman playing Brandon.. He is such a great actor - well, and I consider him attractive, too. And I LOVE Kate Winslet!)

4. Let's stay at Jane Austen: Jane and Bingley from PRIDE AND PREJUDICE - I know they are pretty lame - but I love them. I like lovely people. ;")

5. Charlie Brown and the redheaded girl - and all other romances from THE PEANUTS by Charles M. Schultz.

6. Daisy Dalrymple and Alec Fletcher from the DAISY DALRYMPLE MYSTERIES by Carola Dunn (thank you very much German editors for stopping the series after book 8!! *gnnnrrr*)

7. Nancy and Florence from TIPPING THE VELVET by Sarah Waters. (Yes, actually one book that I already have reviewed.)

8. Pinneberg and Lämmchen (which means: little lamb) from LITTLE MAN, WHAT NOW? by Hans Fallada: They fell in love. She gets preggers. They marry and than have to struggle with his unemployment: Hard times in early 3oies (pre-Hitler)Germany.

9. Hareton and Catherine from WUTHERING HEIGHTS by Emily Brontë. I love Heathcliff - but this is the cuter lovestory.

10. Margaret and John Thornton from NORTH AND SOUTH by Elizabeth Gaskell. I love the BBC for casting Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe!!

And here is my bonus:

Mr. Stringer and Miss Marple!

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten characters to name your children after

This is a meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish.

And again I am bending the rules a little bit: I do not want to have children. (at least not now.) So I am going to post ten characters I would name my cats after. - As you all know, I named my cats Miss Mina Murray and Miss Lucy Westenra after the main female characters in Bram Stoker's DRACULA. ;")

So here are my results in no particular order (well, first five male, last five female names..) and five minutes from now I surely would decide against them:

1. Dobbin from VANITY FAIR by W. M. Thackeray - would have been Mina's name if she was a tom cat.. ;")

2. Smike from NICHOLAS NICKLEBY by Charles Dickens - would have been Lucy's name but she turned out to be a girl, too. ;")

3. Atticus from TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD by Harper Lee.

4. Moriarty from SHERLOCK HOLMES by Arthur Conan Doyle.

5. Bingley from PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen.

6. Ophelia from HAMLET by Shakespeare.

7. Sidda from THE DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD by Rebecca Wells.

8. MORELLA by E. A. Poe.

9. Jerusha from DADDY-LONG-LEGS by Jean Webster.

10. Mrs. de Winter from REBECCA by Daphne Du Maurier.

11. Selena and Clayton from PEYTON PLACE by Grace Metalious. (one of my alltime favourite novels. Got to get into this list..) ;")

So, what about you?

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Most Inspiriational Characters

This is a meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish.

Like every other Top Ten List I make this is no static list - ask me again in five minutes and there will be some other names on the list.. ;") So - like always in random order - here're the result of the Palfy-vote :


Books:


1. Sherlock Homes - brilliant man. 'Nough said.


2. Atticus Finch from TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD by Harper Lee - any questions left? ;")

3. Scout Finch from TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD by Harper Lee - this girl was - No: IS - so awesome! What a brave young lady - and what an honest character!

4. Tigger from THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER by A.A. Milne - so carefree!


5. Miss Bates - the spinster from EMMA by Jane Austen


6. Luna Lovegood from HARRY POTTER by J.K.Rowlings - not afraid to be a "freak". ;")




Films/TV series:


7. Thelma from HEX - lesbian ghost - I love her and her style.


8. Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Raj from THE BIG BANG THEORY - because it's cool to know Schrödinger's cat! ;")





The "real" world:


9. Jane Austen


10. Janis Joplin - my alltime inspiration.

And this is a bonus:

Mina & Lucy. My cats - because they show me every day that there are many small things I can enjoy - even if the day outside my flat was horrid. I love you, girls! - I am going to read this out loud for them - they have troubles spelling - well, I have this problem, too.. ;")

(yes - this is a washing baisin.)

Top Ten Tuesday - Ten Resolutions for 2011

This is a meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.

First of all: I usually don't do New Year's Resolutions. I resolve to do things, yes. But I don't say: This year I am going to do this or that. I am always full of things I want to do or think I should do - but I don't like to browbeat me. (There're enough people out there who do that to me. Nothing serious just the normal ones: Family, job etc.) And besides:

Well, I think my good friend Groucho putted it in immortal words:

;")

So, now that I made clear that I am completely AGAINST resolutions.. ..I think I am going to post some. Since last tuesday I was running around in my flat, tearing my hear and mumbling: "I want to join next TTT - what am I going to do THIS year??" Then I decided to pick some of my decisions I made the last weeks. Which of course were NO resolutions.. ;")

So here they are - the Top Ten resolutions for 2011:

1. Catch up with my reviews - there are so many books waiting to be reviewed..

2. Join challenges! - checked.

3. Do more memes! - checked.

4. Step out of my comfort zone: Read more Fantasy!

5. Read more YA! (yes, this is related to No.4)

6. Read more NEW books! (again, related to No.4)

7. Write far more film reviews for my film blog And then they start to sparkle! (I am lazy, I know - and I am so sorry!)

8. Read the books, which I check out from the library! - I am foraging the library just to bring half of the books back without reading them. (I bring back the other half too - but I have read them.)

9. Gain my challenge goals - and maybe a bit more!

10. Well, what else? Oh - I know: Don't make "funny" posts, which only I find funny and : Be more serious at memes.

To all of you who made resolutions: Good luck with it!

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Books resolved to read in 2011

This is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Well, which books am I going to read in 2011? That's though because I make my reading decision always very spontaneously.. But I think these ten will work their way into my head this year:

1. ASH by Malinda Lo (2010) - yes, you know that if you're following this blog. I am going to read this one veeeery soon. ;") (Actually it is my next read.)

2. ANATOMY OF A MURDER by Robert Traver (1958) - do you know the film?? It's great!! (- yes, am preparing a film review in my film blog then, too.)

3. MY WICKED, WICKED WAYS by Errol Flynn (1959)- I love that man! (I think this is something I owe to my Dad..) I started to read this book last year - and loved it. Than I had to break the reading because I had to catch up with my classics book club reading - and this year I will finish it.

4. A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY by Libba Bray (2003) - this was on so many Best of 2010 lists.. :")

5. PROPHECY OF THE SISTERS by Michelle Zink (2009) - *ahem* I fell in love with a book cover - and it's setted in 1890..




6. IT SEEMED IMPORTANT AT THE TIME - A ROMANCE MEMOIR by Gloria Vanderbilt (2004) - I love biographies - and hej, there's Frank Sinatra in it! :")

7. There is a German Edition of Vita Sackville-West's Gardening columns - (3 volumnes actually) and this year I am going to read them all. Here's the cover for the Summer columns - pretty, eh?:

8. THE WAR AGAINST MISS WINTER by Kathryn Miller Haines (2007) - eventually a mistery setted in the first half of the 20.century is released in German!! *yay*

- German editors seem to twit me: They release the first book of a series than the third and then they withdrew it. I am waiting for so many series.. as the JOSEPHINE TEY MYSTERIES, A ROYAL SPYNESS MYSTERIES, THE LADY JULIA GREY MYSTERIES, THE MOLLY MURPHY MYSTERIES... *sigh*

9. THE LOST ART OF KEEPING SECRETS by Eva Rice (2005) - setted in 1950ies - I won't say more..

10. MANSFIELD PARK by Jane Austen (1814). Really, do I need to explain that? ;")

A German cover which I find really beautiful:
And? Have you books you want to read THIS year?