Friday five

I thought I would try and institute a regular column, now officially dubbed the Friday five, to give me, and my readers, something to look forward to on a weekly basis. Since Friday is the day most of us look forward to anyway, I thought I'd get in your good books by doing it today... and every Friday for the rest of my life! 

Speaking of good books...

This week's Friday five is all about the last five books I read. Not necessarily the best, or worst. Just the last five.

looking bookish

Actually, I just lied. One of the books is the next one I'm going to read, so the last four I read plus the next one I plan on reading.

Hmmm... this plan is already getting OOC (out of control) and I haven't even started yet.

So the next book I plan on reading is called Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. Elaine Lui, my all-time favourite celebrity blogger, recommended it here so when I jumped in to Chapters this morning, to soak up the delicious bookstore atmosphere, I got it along with a lovely Voluspa candle. I know what I'm doing tonight...

Actually, I just lied again. I plan on making pina coladas and pizza. Philly cheese steak pizza.

Word.

I, as of yet, have nothing to say about Beautiful Ruins other than the fact that I absolutely love the cover. It looks like a vintage photograph of Cinque Terre, one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen (pictures of). 

I am currently reading Jill Paton Walsh's The Bad Quarto. TBQ is part of a four-book series which features Imogen Quy (rhymes with "why"), a no-nonsense nurse at St. Agatha's College who is also an amateur sleuth. I have read one other Imogen Quy mystery, Debts of Dishonour, and if the latter is any indication of the former (or vice versa) I'm sure to love it. The series has a very classic English mystery feel to it and makes me feel relaxed, in an odd sort of way. Kind of like Murder she Wrote.

The only thing classically English about the next book, or author, is her affinity for martinis. I am talking, of course, about Chelsea Handler and her wildly funny Are you there Vodka? It's me Chelsea. The second book she wrote but the last one of her's that I read (oh boy... here we go again), AYTVIMC made me laugh out loud more than once and actually made me feel like Chelsea was talking to me.  

Then again I always feel like that...

Moving on. 

Before Chelsea it was a true love story: Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler, by Trudi Kanter. The book recounts Kanter's (who was a hat designer in Vienna) true story of love and courage from Vienna and Prague to London during the Second World War. I bought the book because of something that I quickly read at the back of the book. "That the world, should at its very best, be a place of red roses, Paris avenues and above all else, true love."   

Last but not least (especially considering how long it took me to read) was George R. Martin's A Storm of Swords, the third in the A Song of Ice and Fire saga. Game of Thrones, the series, is based on these books which I have slowly been getting through over the past year. Enough said.