Feature & Follow - Aug 30

This week's Feature & Follow question is...

Best Cover? What is the best cover of a book that you’ve read and didn’t like?



A: A book I read recently comes to mind. I absolutely fell in love with the cover of Pear-Shaped by Stella Newman.  The bubbly pink font, cute baby blue background, teeny tiny white pear dots (not sure if they show up in this picture!), and stylish lady beckoning another time era made me give this book a shot. But, the story? Not so much for me to love there.

A review of the book is scheduled for next month.

The Best of Me

Photo taken by Ms. C. 

I began Nicholas Sparks' latest book, The Best of Me, tentatively.  It's not that I don't like his other works.  I love his older novels.  However - prior to reading The Best of Me - I found his recent tales tiresome, repetitive, and with too strong a focus on criminal activities.  Sparks came to be an author who wrote love stories that always included a crazy person with a gun somewhere within the plot.  And that, to me, is not an attractive story.

Picture Me Wednesday - Shakespeare

Photo taken by Ms. C.

Why Shakespeare, you ask?  A few months ago I visited Stratford-Upon-Avon with E.  I absolutely *loved* my stay in Stratford - which is incidentally the city of Shakespeare's origins.  I bought this pin from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.  Quoted here is a famous line from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

Remember how that lasted for a day?

Taylor Swift: We are Never Ever Getting Back Together    This song is all over the media right now... and I absolutely love it, especially the emphasized "we"!  The video is way too cute =)   *Post title extracted from Taylor Swift's We are Never Ever Getting Back Together lyrics.

Before Ever After

Photo taken by Ms. C

I first heard of Samantha Sotto's book when she commented on my blog.  I like to respond to people's comments and see if they have a blog I can visit in return.  Low and behold, Sotto's comment led me to her blog post about Before Ever After - a book she had released a few days prior.  Her book sounded amazing and its cover was gorgeous... I mentally filed it into my TBR list.  Last month, while browsing my bookstore's shelves, I found Sotto's book and knew I had to give it a read.

Sotto provides us with the story of a bereaved widow's quest to find the truth behind her late husband's life. Shelley, the widow, is told that her husband is alive and somehow seems immune to aging three years after his supposed death. The story is based on Shelley's  recounts of how she met her husband on an European trip and his intimate knowledge of history during her flight halfway across the world in search of her late husband.

Picture Me Wednesday - Yarn

I haven't written a Picture Me Wednesday post for awhile now.... and I think it's high time I bring it back to the blogging world.  Below is a little glimpse of what my hands have been busy creating when I'm not typing out book reviews...

 

 

  My knitting project.  One day (hopefully soon!) all of this yarn will be a nice, long, and cozy ribbed  scarf =)

Teaser Tuesdays - Before Ever After

"He pressed the sharpened edge to his chest and called to his boys, "Wait for me! Papa's coming home!"  He pushed himself off the scaffolding and fell on the brush's point."

~ Before Ever After by Samantha Sotto, p. 113.
Click here to participate at Should Be Reading's Teaser Tuesdays!

I don't mind if you lie in my bed

*love*

Hedley:  Kiss You Inside Out

You can watch the video on YouTube here.

* Post title extracted from Hedley's Kiss You Inside Out lyrics.

Feature & Follow

 This week at Parajunkee's Feature & Follow we are asked:

What blogger inspires you?  It can be any kind, it doesn't have to be a book blogger.

A:  Jessica Valenti -- 110%.  I was introduced to Valenti's blog and Feministing (which she founded!), through a university course many years ago.  I love that she is able to discuss feminism and why it matters in today's society in such a straightforward and engaging way.  He writing have sass and an attitude that I just cannot get enough of.  I have blogged about her published books repeatedly over the years - check some of them out if you like :)

Yes Means Yes!
Purity Myth
He's a Stud, She's a Slut

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Photo taken by Ms. C

I spent a good part of last year browsing bookstores, finding Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, thinking it sounded like an excellent read... but ultimately returning it to its store shelf.  It cost $20 and I couldn't justify buying it.  Flash-forward to a few months ago, and a copy of Bender's work was held tightly in my hands.  After looking and waiting for a copy for *so* long I decided to give it a shot.

Bender tells the story of Rose, a young girl, who can taste emotions in her food.  It is with only one bite of a lemon and chocolate cake that Rose discovers her mother's, the cake chef's, depression.  Bender explores Rose's childhood, family turmoil, and her unique ability to trace emotions in food within this work.

Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove

The Civil Wars : Dance me to the end of love 
Click here to watch the video on YouTube.   *Post title originated from The Civil Wars' Dance Me to the End of Love

Music Monday Feature

Hi everyone! 

I haven't been religiously blogging (and by that I mean keeping up with a schedule of posts) for awhile now.  Earlier today I thought that I needed something to keep me grounded in the blogging world, something to recap the weekend, and perhaps even a little something to act as motivation for whatever is to come during upcoming weeks.  That's when I thought of a Music Monday Feature.

How did music become the solution? 

While I was visiting blog's this weekend I noticed that a few bloggers have installed music players into their sites (ie: you visit their home page and -boom- there's Taylor Swifts' voice).  I love hearing what music other bloggers listen to but sometimes I find it really distracting to be reading posts and paying attention to an artists' lyrics.  Perhaps music would be best enjoyed as a post and feature all by itself?

Tune in to Coffee Tales each Monday for one of my favourite of-the-moment music videos or songs.  Each post will be labelled with a lyric selected from the featured song.  Sometimes less well-known artists will be featured... and sometimes those artists don't produce music videos.  In that case, please excuse any corny graphics that may come along with the YouTube version of a song.

Best,
Ms. C

Follow Friday

This week's question on Parajunkee's follow feature is:

What would you do over if you were to start your blog again from scratch?

A:  I would have liked to network and connect with other bloggers at a faster rate.  I was unaware that a whole universe of book bloggers existed when I first set out to create my blog and it took a few months for me to connect with others. 

I also would have wanted to start out with the name that I currently have - Coffee Tales.  I began my blog as Coffee Tale Reviews because Blogspot kept on giving me an error message when I wrote 'Coffee Tales' while creating my space.  I lived with the name Coffee Tale Reviews for about a year and then decided to just change it without a URL switch.


Thanks for stopping by and I can't wait to follow your blogs and answers!