Bloggers Boogie: Crushes

So I realised my boogie last week was very heavily female based - there were some great 80's pop icons. However, the question remains, whose posters did I use to practice my first kisses? (Too much information? Too bad!)So today's Boogie is dedicated to my teenage crushes.

Richard Marx - Should've Known Better.

Boy could he rock a tight pair of jeans!

Gloria - Van Morrison

Pretty much the whole cast of The Outsiders, but especially Matt Dillon who played Dally - I always did love a bad boy. This was also one of my first experiences of a movie not being as good as the book. I love the book - in fact there are still whole passages I can quote.

Kenny Loggins - Footloose

Kevin Bacon in Footloose. That smile, those hips...sigh...

Patrick Swayze - She's Like the Wind.

 I love a good dance movie. As for Patrick Swayze - those arms, oh lord those arms!

Kenny Loggins - Dangerzone

Tom Cruise in Top Gun - before he married our Nicole, went all weird and dumped her!

Want to boogie along? Post your own 5, whatever theme you want and link up over at Little White Dove.

Book Review: The Giving Quilt

From Goodreads: At Elm Creek Manor, the week after Thanksgiving is “Quiltsgiving,” a time to commence a season of generosity. From near and far, quilters and aspiring quilters—a librarian, a teacher, a college student, and a quilt-shop clerk among them—gather for a special winter session of quilt camp, to make quilts for Project Linus. (In real life, Chiaverini has long been active in this charitable organization, dedicated to providing handmade quilts and blankets to children in need.)
Each quilter, ever mindful that many of her neighbors, friends, and family members are struggling through difficult times, uses her creative gifts to alleviate their collective burden. As the week unfolds, the quilters respond to Sylvia’s provocative question in ways as varied as the life experiences that drew them to Elm Creek Manor. Love and comfort are sewn into the warm, bright, beautiful quilts they stitch, and their stories collectively consider the strength of human connection and its rich rewards.

Thoughts: There are no surprises with this series - which is a good thing. Every now and then you need a book where you know what you are going to get - familiar characters, happy endings, solid writing. Opening and Elm Creek Quilts novel is like catching up with old friends.
In the Giving Quilt, Chiaverini takes us through the stories of 5 campers who have come to Elm Creek for the annual Quiltgiving - a camp aimed at making quilts for Project Linus. (A real life charity who delivers handmade blankets and quilts to children in need) Each camper has a story to explain what lead them to Elm Creek and each share in the healing qualities of time with like minded people.
One of the things I love about Elm Creek novels is the camaraderie it highlights that comes with quilting. Through quilting I have made wonderful friends who share a passion for fabric, thread and time at you machine! While we now share stories of family, children and work, quilting is what bought us together in the first place. Elm Creek captures that idea of shared passion so well. 

Book Review: Monica Bloom

From Goodreads: Matt Sherman is in his final year of school. And he's ready to move onto bigger and better things. But from the moment he hears her voice over the fence, Matt knows he has to meet his neighbours' cousin, Monica Bloom. She's just flown in from Dublin ready for the start of school, but not at all ready, it turns out, for what the year holds.

Things slip out of control when Matt's dad is embroiled in a scandal at work that makes news headlines. Meanwhile, Monica Bloom finds trouble of her own, and Matt finds that he can't stop thinking about her.

Thoughts: Another quality read from Nick Earls.I don't know exactly what it is about Earls that makes him able to take me back to when I was a teenager and dealing with all the (as far you are concerned)life and death matters of that age. I read his young adult fiction and think "Oh God, yes, I remember those first torturous conversations with the boy I liked!"
 Where Earls shone in this book though was his handling of the way Matt reacted to what was happening with his dad. He was aware of it, knew very well that it had long term consequences, but his focus was still on Monica Bloom. I know as a teen whenever there was upheaval in our family, I was aware of it, but it was out of my control - very little I did or could do would change it. In the end, you rode it out, maybe tried to be a little more helpful, a little more considerate, but in the end it was still you and your issues that dominated your time and thoughts. I thought Earls portrayed this beautifully. As always his teen characters are realistic, believable and you just want to help them! Me personally, I wanted to take Monica Bloom home and look after her.
This book also gave me a reminder of how different life is now. While never stated, the music mentioned in the book suggests late 70's early 80's. A time when the worst thing smuggled into a high school disco was alcohol. No iphones, no internet, no Facebook. Harder in many ways, but a lot simpler in others. 

Challenges:  Aussie Author

Book Review: The Sheikh's Love-Child

From Goodreads: With butterflies fluttering in her stomach, Lucy Banks has arrived in the desert kingdom of Biryal--with a secret Seeing Sheikh Khaled--the man who once loved and left her--in his sumptuous royal palace, Lucy is blown away by his barbaric magnificence: he's king of the desert and his eyes are blacker and harder than before. He's not the man she once knew. She wants to run away from his overwhelming masculinity, but they're inextricably bound forever...for he is the father of her son.

Thoughts: So it was with much trepidation I approached this book - and I'd love to say I was proven wrong. That all the things I had thought about this genre of books was unfair, that I had misjudged. However, I can't. It was everything I feared - stereotypical, clichéd, trite, bland. Worse than all of that, it worries me that in the wrong hands, this book could be dangerous.
The main character Lucy was pathetic. Presumably a smart woman who is a successful physiotherapist, but is completely unable to foresee the consequences of telling the single, childless prince of a fictional Arab island that he has a son. Really? Never even considered what would happen if he wanted access? She then proceeds to allow him to bully and threaten her into giving access. 

I think you'll find I have far more resources than you to see I am granted custody. 

Add to that, she then allowed him to order her around like his possession, demanding she return to his home with the child, assuming it would happen. But that's all OK because she loves him and really it's best for the child!
As for Khaled, the prince - major god complex. Supreme being and ruler who not only expects but insists everyone bends to his rule, his desire. Just as well they do, would hate to imagine the tantrum if they didn't! Any time Lucy dares contradict him, challenge him, she is labeled willful and difficult. Apparently it's totally acceptable to tell the world's media that you are marrying someone before you even ask her. It's also ok to react as if this is not incredibly rude, disrespectful and wrong...am I missing something here??
Look, I don't mind a light read, a bit of romance, but there is so much better stuff our there - Marian Keyes for a start. Stuff that does not portray women as being somehow lost without a man and unable to discern the difference between a man who respects and loves her and one who just wants to control and own her. This is not romance, this is simply wrong.
It does worry me that other women are the ones writing these characters. That they think a woman who fell pregnant to a man during a two month relationship, a man who then left with no explanation, no way to contact him, raised the child alone for 3 years and was then totally dominated by the said man so easily, gave into his demands with barely a fight, is a woman that female readers will identify with. These authors seem unable to provide their peers with women who demand to be treated with respect, who cannot see their way past a hot body and smoldering eyes. And while calling it dangerous may seem a bit melodramatic, I do believe that in 2013 it is completely unnecessary and insulting.

As some of you would realise, this book was read as part of a challenge. Discussions on Facebook about which book I would read, led to me challenging one of my friends to read Contracted: Corporate Wife. In her voting comment, (scroll to the bottom of the comments to read Kirsty's) she described how she thought the plot would go. I figured she could read it to find out. As these things go, I then roped in another two girls to read the last two books. While it all started out as a bit of fun, I now really want them to read the books to find out if my assumptions made in review hold for all three or if it's just the crappy one I got stuck with. I cannot and will not read another so I am now relying on Kirsty, Miss Dove and Miss Car to do my research for me! Their prize - champagne...and me to drink it with! And as Kirsty at least knows from experience, I don't drink crappy champagne!

Cheers, girls!

Blogger's Boogie - Teeny Bopper

Last week, the gorgeous, but obviously young Miss Dove, only recognised one of my songs! And then she confessed to a teenage love of Britney Spears. Which got me thinking about my teeny bopper loves in the 80's, so here is my (embarrassing) 80's style teeny bopper Blogger's Boogie.

Tiffany - I Think We're Alone Now. 

I'm sure 80's was dominated by the first name only pop singers. I thought Tiffany was the coolest thing EVA!

Debbie Gibson - Electric Youth

I had a hat just like hers...and a waist coat...I never looked that cool though!

Mel & Kim - Respectable

Again with the hats. This one reminds me of my 16th...

Kylie - Locomotion.

It has to be the one she did in Aus, not the one she did with Stock, Aitken and Waterman. I still love a good bit of Kylie.

Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Wanna have Fun.

This was my version of rebelling - pathetic I know!

Well, that's a boogie that shows my age! Want to boogie as well? This week's boogie is being guest hosted over at Carrose Creations. Head over and link up!

Book Review: Wool

From Goodreads: In a ruined and toxic landscape, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo’s rules for years, unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: He asks to go outside. His fateful decision unleashes a drastic series of events. An unlikely candidate is appointed to replace him: Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, whose special knack is fixing machines. Now Juliette is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo, and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken. The silo is about to confront what its history has only hinted about and its inhabitants have never dared to whisper. Uprising.

Thoughts: This was originally written as 5 novellas/ short stories before being released as an omnibus. If you are buying it on Kindle, make sure you buy the omnibus or you will end up having to buy all 5 separately. 
If you're looking for a well written, original, adult dystopian novel - you've found it. Wool starts with an ember that you can see glowing hotter and hotter until it explodes. But the build up is not slow and torturous - it's engaging and intriguing. You know something is not right, but you're not sure what. Howey builds pressure, feeding the reader bits of information, unsettling them, never letting them get completely comfortable in the world of the silo. And when the explosion happens, the pressure is released, but only temporarily. A whole new pressure starts to build. As in real life, things don't go to plan and the reader is still uncertain as to what the true secrets are. In the end, Wool is a phenomenal book. Apparently there is another two in the series, with the second Shift out now. Again, released in short stories first, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the Omnibus edition.

Chanllenges: ebook Challenge 

Bloggers Boogie: Intimo style!

Another Saturday, another boogie! Tomorrow I'm having an Intimo party. A chance to get the girls together and have a look as some pretty lingerie and even buy some! They also do some lovely clothes, so today's boogie is all about clothes!

Want to boogie along? Post your own 5, whatever theme you want and link up over at Little White Dove.

Roxette's Dressed for Success

Cake's Short Skirt, Long Jacket

The Hollies' Long Cool Woman (in a black dress)

John Mayer's version of Raspberry Beret. I could not find the original by Prince! This was the best cover there was - there are a lot of bad covers out there!

Madonna's Dress You Up. Oh the memories of putting this on the record player (yes, I'm that old) and running to the top of the stairs to do the walk down! I use to be able to do the whole dance using a hairbrush as a mic!