Good on you, Goodreads

I love Goodreads. I love how it can keep track of all of the books I've read. It can keep track of all of my reviews and so much more. I definitely don't use all of it's features (like updating the progress of each book) but I do love the website. If you don't use it, you really should!

What I'm most happy about though, is now I can add a second (third, forth, etc) time reading the same book! It makes me so happy, because I love to take part in the reading challenge each year, and each year I re-read Harry Potter. And in the past, I just have to change the reading date, or add a different edition to my bookshelf or "cheat" somehow. So when I saw that I can add a second reading date, I was jumping for joy!

Because really, who can read Harry Potter only once?

Thanks Goodreads, for making this reader happy.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - Announcement Trailer [HD]

I get chills from this...

Amazing!

I'm sure most of you have seen this, but one more time wont hurt, right? November 2016 cannot come fast enough. I can't wait to see some new wizardy on the big screen! I'm so excited I may have to re-read this book a few more times to keep me busy until then.

Enjoy!

The Book Blahs

I'm in a reading slump, and I can't get back up! I started reading Life of Pi, and just couldn't get into that so I put it down. Tried Never Let Me Go, couldn't get passed the first 50 pages or so. Nothing on my overflowing book shelf seemed appealing.

I watched Something Borrowed and it inspired me to re-read the book. I enjoy Something Borrowed, but it lacked passion this time around. 

What's a literary girl to do?

Today I'm starting The Book of Awesome, this might just be the book to get my book spirits lifted. And maybe my days will be a little more Awesome!

In My Mailbox (January 15, 2012)

In My Mailbox credit goes to The Story Siren

This is a few IMM's, including some Christmas gifts!

Gifts:

The Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy Box Set by Maggie Stiefvater

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them by J.K Rowling

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil owls - so pretty!

Harry Potter Golden Snitch - this is so awesome (and my dog really wanted to be in the picture)

Review:

My Beating Teenage Heart by C.K Kelly Martin | Goodreads Synopsis

Black Heart by Holly Black | Goodreads Synopsis

The Summer of Permanent Wants by Jamieson Findlay | Goodreads Synopsis

Won:

Prize Pack from Beth Revis which included bookmarks, a poster, a limited edition Koi print, and a rubber band bracelet! I was so freaking excited to get this, as I had no idea I won. It just poped up in my mailbox one day and I was like, woah!

That is all folks! A pretty awesome mailbox if I do say so myself! Let me know what you got :)

Thank you Simon and Schuster for sending me something once again! A HUGE thank you to my family who knows me all to well and spoiled me. And thank yo Beth Revis, for making my day a little brighter!

In My Mailbox (October 2, 2011)

In My Mailbox credit goes to The Story Siren

This is the last two weeks, just to let you know! :)

I was so lucky again this year to be able to attend:

It was so much fun, and such a gorgeous day! And we go a great pile of books!

Bought:

Harry Potter series Books 1-7

Whiteout by Ken Follet

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Raymond and Hannah by Stephen Marche

Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald

A few kids book my daughter picked out

*I got all of these books for a donation. It felt great to donate money for a great cause, but I felt like I was stealing ALL 7 HP books! Now my daughter has her own set, and she is so excited about that!*

Beastly by Alex Flinn

Elixir by Hilary Duff

For Review:

Devoted (Elixir #2) by Hilary Duff | Goodreads

Mr Fox by Helen Oyeyemi | Goodreads

Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices #2) by Cassandra Clare | Goodreads

Thank you everyone for these awesome books! And let me tell you, when I saw that it was Clockwork Prince in the mail, I was so freaking excited! Clockwork Angel (The first in this series) was the first ARC I got, and the first book I reviewed on this blog, so this means a little something more to me I guess. So thank you again!

Leave a comment and I'll be sure to check your In My Mailbox.

Harry Potter Party

Thanks to our local Chapters the other night my family and I were able to visit Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley and have a quick game of Quddditch.

When we first ran through Platform 93/4, we went on a hunt for the Golden Snitch. Apparently we need to work on our Seeker skills as neither of us found the snitch.

Our next stop was Ollivanders. Our little Wizard here needed a new wand!

Wand making @ Ollivanders

Ollivanders Wand Shop

• Located in Diagon Alley, as well as a shop in Hogsmeade
• Owned by the Ollivanders and run by Mr. Ollivander who remembers each wand ever sold in his shop
• Acknowledged as the best wandmakers in Britain, and highly noted around Europe

Next we went the Honeydukes, one of the most famous places in Hogsmeade!

Honeydukes

• Sweet shop known for its chocolate and candy
• This shop has a secret passage into Hogwarts, in which Harry Potter used after Fred and George gave him the Marauder's Map (to get into Hogsmeade)
• Owners of Honeydukes is Ambrosius Flume and his wife
• Home of some of the best Wizard sweets/chocolate including:

-Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans - the most popular candy in the Wizarding World

"You want to be careful with those. When they say every flavour, they mean every flavour - you know you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a bogey-flavoured one once."

—Ron Weasley to Harry Potter

-Chocolate Frogs - very popular, and have cards that portray famous wizards and witches on them

-Fizzing Whizzbess - Harry Potters favourite candy, though when he found out they might contain animal parts, he wrote in his copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them that he'd never again eat them

-Pumpkin Fizz - Fred and George brought this stuff back to celebrate Gryffindor's victory over Ranvenclaw

-Treacle Fudge - Hagrid loves to make this stuff!

Hedwig joined us

We thought we'd have some fun at Zonko's Joke Shop

Zonko's Joke Shop

• A favourite place in Hogsmeade for Hogwarts students
• Known to carry "jokes and tricks to fulfill even Fred and George Weasely's wildest dreams"
• Items sold include Dungbombs, Hiccough Sweets, Frog Spawn Soap, Sugar Quills and Nose-Biting Teacups

We had to stop and make a potion in Potions class.

 

Potions Class

• Known potions professors include Severus Snape and Horace Slughorn
• Potions is required for all first to fifth year students at Hogwarts
  
  

To end the night, our little wizard sat down and read the Daily Prophet.

What a magical night we had!

Harry Potter - Funny!

Ok, so I just finished watching these, and they are so funny!
Enjoy!



I love Hufflepuff, don't get me wrong! This was the house my daughter was sorted in when we went to the Harry Potter Exhibition, but this video is pretty darn funny!

In My Mailbox (July 10, 2011)

In My Mailbox credit goes to The Story Siren

So, I missed last week but I'm here this week with some pretty awesome books!!

Bought:

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K Rowling - I was able to get myself a First American Edition of this lovely book to add to our colloection

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K Rowling - once again, a First American Edition!

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry - bought this since I got an ARC of Dust & Decay

Lego Harry Potter: Building The Magical World - couldn't resit this (since we got it for super cheap!!)

Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella - thanks to library book sales!

Empire Magazine - Harry Potter Speical - thanks to the family for this one :)

Won:

Clarity by Kim Harrington - Thanks Terry over at TerryLynnJohnson

For Review:

ARC of The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler | Goodreads Synopsis

ARC of Triangles by Ellen Hopkins | Goodreads Synopsis

Thanks so much McClellandBooks and Simon & Schuster (you know how much I love you guys at S&S!)

What did you guys get? Leave a comment with a link and I'll check it out.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2

Because we can't get too much Harry Potter in one day...



This is amazing. I've watched it over and over and it gets better each time! I'm so excited for this movie.

Mysterious Harry Potter news...

Apparently, I'm a little behind, but today on Twitter I saw this:

"Harry Potter fans flock to JKRowling's mysterious new site, Pottermore http://gu.com/p/3vvet/tf #bookculture"

(note: that link takes you to the Guardian news site, NOT the Harry Potter site)

Clicking on the picture below will take you to the Pottermore site

What?! Pottermore...so that means more Potter! How exciting is that? What could this all mean?
Check out this countdown here on YouTube and start guessing!

There's talk that it could be a new book, (though a spokesperson and confirmed that it is NOT a new book) an encyclopedia, among other ideas!
What do think it could be? Are you as excited as I am (and I know my daughter will be when she's home from school and sees this good news!)

We'll all have to wait and see what this exciting and mysterious news is!

Because I love Harry Potter so much.

Nothing like a good trip down memory lane, with a few new moments here and there!



Exciting!!

So here it is, what we've all been waiting for....

I was so excited when I heard that the world premier for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 movie trailer would be tonight. How exciting!! Little did I know that when I watched it (at least a 881 times!!) that it would make me want to cry. It's almost over...the amazing world known as Harry Potter is just about finished. Anywho, enough with the ramblings, just watch this:



There you have it (and I bet you watched it more than once), the final movie of the EPIC series known as Harry Potter. As sad as it is, I have NEVER seen a Harry Potter movie in theatres. I didn't even see Part 1 (because my daughter wanted to see it, and I heard that it was too 'dark' for her, and blah blah. So I didn't see it, and we have since bought the DVD, and daughter LOVES it. So we're going to see this one for sure. We have to see at least one in the theatres.
It's been a wonderful journey, and though it's officially ending, The Magical World of Harry Potter will never actually 'end'. We will continue to love and read and watch Harry Potter!

So so exciting!
(Now I'm off to look at more Harry Potter tattoos on the net... !!)

Spring is in the air!

Here in Ontario we've been having some pretty decent weather. The sun is shining, the grass is slowly turning green, and flowers are starting to bloom. All of this, along with the laundry hanging outside is fabulous. But what I don't like about Spring?

SPIDERS!

 They are everywhere now, yes, including in my bathroom, where a big black one was narrowly staring me down last night. Eww, I hate spiders, and I refuse to kill them myself unless I have a shoe with me. I can't aim with a kleenex and get it the first time - they crawl around the kleenex making me scream even louder, and it's an all out disaster. Sure, some of you will hate that I kill them, but I cannot be kind to those eight legged nasty things.

"Why spiders? Why couldn't it be "follow the butterflies"?" - Ron Weasley Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

I give Ron Weasley full credit for what he did in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Follow the spiders? Never would I do that, and Ron, who is deathly affraid of spiders too, followed the spiders. Aragog was a ginormous spider that not only did Ron have to stand and look at, but he then sent his "children" to chase after Ron and Harry. Gross.

Poor Ron even has dreams of spiders wanting to tap-dance with him later on in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban!




Anyways, while I love Spring, I do not like the spiders that come with it! But I do love Harry Potter and Ron :)

And on that good note - Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 is coming out on DVD tomorrow!