Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Another Mucha

I would probably also use this one, too, in the side-bar area. Maybe she can change the goose quill to peacock feathers?

The Alphonse Mucha

This is the other major picture which I really like. Maybe we can use both?

Planning For The Re-Design


I have decided to have this blog re-designed. It is so plain when compared to my knitting blog. I am going to hire Darcy, the wonderful designer who did my Knitting With Athena blog. So, in preparation, I have been looking up art work to use in the re-design. There are two Alphonse Mucha pictures which I like very much as well as a new one from Josephine Wall. She is very generous in letting people utilize her art work, as long as they don't make any money from it. Needless to say, a blog like this makes absolutely no money. Anyway, the picture above is one that I like very much. It especially goes well with the title of the blog.


Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Books Read in 2008

I can hardly believe that I read all these books last year. There is a real variety in quality represented here, I admit. A number of the action/adventure novels were just too cinematic for my tastes as the plots turned out to be just one cliffhanger after another. I will be adding more of the authors to this list as well as my awards (stars/razzberries); generally **1/2 will be applied to books which are just fun reads and/or guilty pleasures:

Amazonia (J. Rollins) **1/2
Black Order (J. Rollins) **1/2
Blasphemy (D. Preston) **1/2
Brimstone (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict ****
Dance of Death (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Deep Fathom (J. Rollins) **1/2
Deep Storm (L. Child) **1/2
Excavation (J. Rollins) **1/2
Ice Hunt (J. Rollins) **1/2
Map of Bones (J. Rollins) **1/2
Mount Dragon (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Pompeii *****
Relic (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Reliquary (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Rip Tide (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Sandstorm (J. Rollins) **1/2
Still Life With Crows (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Subterranean (J. Rollins) **1/2
Temple (M. Reilly) * (very frantic; however, loved the rapas)
The Alexandria Link (S. Berry) *****
The Amber Room (S. Berry) *****
The Athena Factor **1/2
The Book of the Dead (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
The Cabinet of Curiosities (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
The Codex (D. Preston) **1/2
The Crystal Skull **1/2 (author is a veterinarian)
The Drowning Tree (C. Goodman) *****
The Expected One (RAZZBERRY)(only if you are desperate)--the worst of the Magdaleneia
The Ice Limit (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
The Judas Strain (J. Rollins) **1/2
The Last Oracle (J. Rollins) ***
The Last Secret of the Temple (P. Sussman) *****
The Lost Army of Cambyses (P. Sussman) *****
The Lost Constitution
The Night Villa (C. Goodman) *****
The Romanov Prophecy (S. Berry) *****
The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (Willig) ****
The Secret Scroll **1/2
The Secret Supper **1/2
The Seduction of Water (C. Goodman) *****excellent mystery
The Templar Legacy (S. Berry) *****
The Third Secret (S. Berry) *****
The Venetian Betrayal (S. Berry) *****
The Wheel of Darkness (D. Preston & L. Child) **1/2
Tyrannosaur Canyon (D. Preston) **1/2