Red alert: Cheryl looks stylish in a red jacket and jeans as she gets into her waiting car
Alreet America! Cheryl Cole arrives at Heathrow Airport to board a flight to Los Angeles ahead of her new role on X Factor USA
I'm in! Cheryy, seen in new promotional stills for the show, is excited to be heading Stateside for the X Factor USA where she will sit next to Simon Cowell and LA Reid on the judging panel
Ready for battle: Cheryl can't wait to get the first series of the American version of the X Factor show underway and is looking to beat Simon Cowell as she has in the U.K. show
Great chemistry: Fox bosses have praised Cheryl's talent as a judge and have said America will love the way she interacts with Simon Cowell
Alreet America! Cheryl Cole arrives at Heathrow Airport to board a flight to Los Angeles ahead of her new role on X Factor USA
I'm in! Cheryy, seen in new promotional stills for the show, is excited to be heading Stateside for the X Factor USA where she will sit next to Simon Cowell and LA Reid on the judging panel
Ready for battle: Cheryl can't wait to get the first series of the American version of the X Factor show underway and is looking to beat Simon Cowell as she has in the U.K. show
Great chemistry: Fox bosses have praised Cheryl's talent as a judge and have said America will love the way she interacts with Simon Cowell
 Miss Mun. of Alabat Gabrielle Marie Cabrera |  Miss Antipolo City Klaudine Palma |  Miss Baguio City Christine Kate Adi |
 Miss Mun. of Balagtas Beverlyn Alquiros |  Miss Balanga City Dindi Joy Pajares |  Miss Mun. of Baliwag Vivienne Andrea Gulla |
 Miss Bayugan City Alyssa Mae Canizares |  Miss Cagayan de Oro City Catherine Almirante |  Miss Mun. of Cainta Christianne Ramos |
 Miss Calamba City Mardie Rose Enriquez |  Miss Calapan City Mary Sheila Rosales |  Miss Caloocan City Clarizze Angelica Barrameda |
 Miss Fil Canada Imelda Gaborno |  Miss Mun. of Capalonga Mercy Malaluan |  Miss Mun. of Casiguran Athena Mae Imperial |
 Miss Cotabato City Edan Dafilmoto |  Miss Cebu City Murielle Adrienne Orais |  Miss Davao City Honey Claire Arranguez |
 Miss Gen. Santos City Catrine Rosary Ocampo |  Miss Mun. of Imus Angela Patricia Medina |  Miss Mun. of Labo Rhizsa Jerrika Bravo |
 Miss Las Pinas City Michelle Gavagan |  Miss Mun. of Libungan Crista Juanico |  Miss Lipa City Czshevinah Hae Alejandro |
 Miss Mun. of Loay Renee Soraya Hassani |
 Miss Mun. of Loboc Aileene Ella Dango |  Miss Makati City Tarhata Clio Shari Rico |  Miss Malolos City Mary Denisse Toribio |
 Miss Manila City Margo Katherine Midwinter |  Miss Mun. of Midsayap Mary Grace Jedaver Opingo |  Miss Mun. of Milaor Jaine Hidalgo |
 Miss Mun. of Narvacan Ralph Lauren Asuncion |  Miss Pagadian City Ma. Alicia Elena Ariosa |  Miss Paranaque City Zhaniethia Villanueva |
 Miss Mun. of Parang Joti Babrah |  Miss Passi City Diana Angelie Jainga |  Miss Puerto Princesa Jonavi Raisa Quiray |
 Miss San Fernando City Erika Marie Syhongpan |  Miss Mun. of San Isidro Leslie Ching |  Miss San Juan City Ana Ma. Gracia Baladad |
 Miss San Pedro City Princess Jennifer Inosa |  Miss Mun. of Sto Tomas Norella Nacis |  Miss Santiago City Jaymie Lou Pagulayan |
 Miss Mun. of Sapi-an Caraleigh Ico |  Miss Tanauan City Diane Carmela Querrer |  Miss Fil Central USA Cari-Dawn Conejero Campbell |
 Miss Fil East Coast USA Brenna Cassandra Gamboa |  Miss Vigan City Diana Rose Santos |  Miss Mun. of Virac Anna Amalia Brillante |
Is that you, Cheryl? Ms Cole made something of a fashion faux pas in a grey tracksuit as she flew back to the UK
Not a good look: Cheryl teamed the tracksuit with a pair of heeled boots
In disguise: Cheryl tried to go incognito in a pair of huge sunglasses
Can't you see anything? Cheryl, who was wearing dark sunglasses, is guided through the airport
Glamour girl: Cheryl's dressed-down look was in sharp contrast to her appearance at the X Factor USA auditions last week
Chic: Cheryl went for huge hair and a vibrant outfit for her first day of work StatesideVIA Cheryl Cole makes a fashion faux pas in unflattering grey tracksuit
Thanks to Valerie at Hachette Book Group, I have FIVE copies of Made in the U.S.A. by Billie Letts to give away!
BOOK INFORMATION:
The bestselling author of WHERE THE HEART IS returns with a heartrending tale of two children in search of a place to call home.
Lutie McFee's history has taught her to avoid attachments...to people, to places, and to almost everything. With her mother long dead and her father long gone to find his fortune in Las Vegas, 15-year-old Lutie lives in the god-forsaken town of Spearfish, South Dakota with her twelve-year-old brother, Fate, and Floy Satterfield, the 300-pound ex-girlfriend of her father.
While Lutie shoplifts for kicks, Fate spends most of his time reading, watching weird TV shows and worrying about global warming and the endangerment of pandas. As if their life is not dismal enough, one day, while shopping in their local Wal-Mart, Floy keels over and the two motherless kids are suddenly faced with the choice of becoming wards of the state or hightailing it out of town in Floy's old Pontiac. Choosing the latter, they head off to Las Vegas in search of a father who has no known address, no phone number and, clearly, no interest in the kids he left behind.
MADE IN THE U.S.A. is the alternately heartbreaking and life-affirming story of two gutsy children who must discover how cruel, unfair and frightening the world is before they come to a place they can finally call home.
* Includes a Reading Group Guide
Giveaway Rules:
![[VIDEO Trailer] Colombiana (2011)](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7E7pZdv2ageHKvPra66DK4keU-mRO4Rhq9qXsI6hj4RB2JxMxfeLmpCueIZF_wOMGTmWInSamHu9L07cqx2bBeUIA-XIFSUwI-awViNnPokCp9uN8Yg4D2vrYRkE8Fmxi8Uf4oolneoR8/s1100/colombiana_3.jpg)
Name: Trisha VergoTrisha is an energetic, outgoing and caring individual. She believes in putting family first and is very thankful for the role that her family has played in making her the hard working and ambitious woman she is today.
Born in Edmonton and raised in northern Alberta’s Cold Lake she is proud to call Canada her home.
After graduating high school Trisha continued her education in Hanceville, Alabama USA studying her Bachelor of Science Degree in Medical Laboratory Technology. Upon returning to Canada she went a different direction and began working in Real Estate.
After three years she is the Office Manager of a Real Estate Investment Company in Edmonton, Alberta. Growing up she enjoyed dancing jazz, ballet, tap and folk and uses her dance back round to teach dance fitness classes evenings and weekends.
She enjoys leading an active lifestyle and in her spare time she is studying to become AFLCA certified in group exercise leadership.
Trish has a kind heart and believes that everyone can make a difference for positive change. She has volunteered with the Salvation Army, Samaritan’s Purse, The Edmonton Food Bank, Canadian Blood Services/One Match Stem Cell and Marrow Network and American Red Cross.
Growing up on acreage in a rural community Trish has always had an affinity for animals and is a member of PETA and the Soi Dog Foundation. She hopes to one day adopt a dog to Canada from the organization that helps abused and abandoned cats and dogs in Thailand.
In addition to dancing, Trish enjoys travelling, swimming, snowboarding, creating culinary sensations in the kitchen and making people laugh. Her favourite night of the week is Monday as she gets to catch up with Grammy and Gramps over supper. Her passion for life keeps her pretty busy when she isn’t on the go you can find her curled up reading a book or watching the Food Network.
Sponsored by:
Crystal’s Bridal, Joanne Halldorson Royal LePage Cold Lake, Master & Master Real Estate Edmonton, Tangles Hair Salon Cold Lake, Royal LePage Northern Lights Cold Lake, Louise Johnson Sutton Cold Lake, EK Designs, Shameless Accessories, Family and Friends.
Languages spoken Fluently (please include your native language if English is not your native language)
English
Name: Trisha VergoTrisha is an energetic, outgoing and caring individual. She believes in putting family first and is very thankful for the role that her family has played in making her the hard working and ambitious woman she is today.
Born in Edmonton and raised in northern Alberta’s Cold Lake she is proud to call Canada her home.
After graduating high school Trisha continued her education in Hanceville, Alabama USA studying her Bachelor of Science Degree in Medical Laboratory Technology. Upon returning to Canada she went a different direction and began working in Real Estate.
After three years she is the Office Manager of a Real Estate Investment Company in Edmonton, Alberta. Growing up she enjoyed dancing jazz, ballet, tap and folk and uses her dance back round to teach dance fitness classes evenings and weekends.
She enjoys leading an active lifestyle and in her spare time she is studying to become AFLCA certified in group exercise leadership.
Trish has a kind heart and believes that everyone can make a difference for positive change. She has volunteered with the Salvation Army, Samaritan’s Purse, The Edmonton Food Bank, Canadian Blood Services/One Match Stem Cell and Marrow Network and American Red Cross.
Growing up on acreage in a rural community Trish has always had an affinity for animals and is a member of PETA and the Soi Dog Foundation. She hopes to one day adopt a dog to Canada from the organization that helps abused and abandoned cats and dogs in Thailand.
In addition to dancing, Trish enjoys travelling, swimming, snowboarding, creating culinary sensations in the kitchen and making people laugh. Her favourite night of the week is Monday as she gets to catch up with Grammy and Gramps over supper. Her passion for life keeps her pretty busy when she isn’t on the go you can find her curled up reading a book or watching the Food Network.
Sponsored by:
Crystal’s Bridal, Joanne Halldorson Royal LePage Cold Lake, Master & Master Real Estate Edmonton, Tangles Hair Salon Cold Lake, Royal LePage Northern Lights Cold Lake, Louise Johnson Sutton Cold Lake, EK Designs, Shameless Accessories, Family and Friends.
Languages spoken Fluently (please include your native language if English is not your native language)
English
Some argue that Fanny Price is the least likable of Austen's heroines. I can see how people might think this. She is a little preachy and annoying at times, but I still felt I found a connection with Fanny. Mansfield Park is about a girl who is separated from her family to grow up with her wealthy aunt and uncle. She is never treated like family. It is constantly acknowledged that she is separate from her cousins. One of her four cousins, Edmund, does treat her kindly. This of course makes Fanny like him which later grows into a romantic interest. Another man takes in interest in Fanny however, and much to Fanny's dislike. His name is Henry Crawford and he goes from trying to win Fanny's interest to becoming a bit desperate for her love. Fanny stays away from him because she has seen his actions toward other women, even though it upsets everyone around her that she is not interested.
Throughout the book I felt like Fanny was really struggling with what everyone wanted her to do and what she herself wanted to do. She is about eighteen in this book and I felt like her experience was really similar to most eighteen-year-old girls in today's world. Everyone is telling her what to do but she always sticks with what she wants. I really liked that about Fanny, and I feel like she is heroine for today's world. It's easy to give in, but you don't have to.
This novel also offers from very interesting views of the clergy at the time since that is Edmund's chosen profession. He is constantly arguing for the merit of the profession and I found this quote particularly interesting:
It is impossible that your own observation can have given you much knowledge of the clergy. You can have been personally acquainted with very few of a set of men you condemn so conclusively. You are speaking what you have been told at your uncle's table.
Okay so this quote isn't that interesting about the actual clergy, but I do think it's interesting in relationship to Fanny's moral questions (as well as another good lesson for all of us). This quote alone really make me like Edmund even though he is kind of saying it for his own favor. It is true that we make a great deal of our "observations" based on what other people say about them. If someone says a sandwich isn't good I'm not compelled to go try it myself, I choose to stay away from it. So, I liked this book. But my suggestion would be that if you haven't read most of Austen's other works to wait on this one. I haven't read Emma or Persuasion yet and I wish I would have tackled one of them before this one.
This novel earns a C.
Pub. Date: April 2003 (1814)
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Format: Paperback, 480 pp
This is my first book for the Jane Austen Challenge.
I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.
In addition to providing a guest review for us, (read her review of Cloaked ), Sheila from Book Journey has generously offered a giveaway for our lucky readers today! It's pretty simple. Here, from Sheila herself, is what you have to do:In celebration of the FUN that is Fairy Tale Fortnight I wanted to offer a giveaway. First, read my review of Cloaked at The Book Rat and leave a comment there about the review. Then return here and share with us your favorite fairy tale and why. A winner will be chosen using random.org and the winner will get to choose from one of three of Alex Finn's books that I will send them from Amazon: Cloaked, A Kiss In Time, or Beastly.USA and Canada entrants only please. Ends May 5th May 8th
Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey
is all about my favorite kind of novel: the gothic romance. What makes this novel special though is that it pokes fun at the gothic romance but is still enjoyable for a gothic lover like myself. Our heroine is 17 year-old Catherine Morland, lover of great gothic thrillers. She is visiting Bath with friends Mr. and Mrs. Allen, which is where she makes friends with Isabella Thorpe and finds the two love interests of the novel, Henry Tilney and John Thorpe. The Tilney family invites Catherine to stay with them at their home, Northanger Abbey. Catherine expects Northanger Abbey to be like the great ancient and dark abbeys in the books she reads. She is easily persuaded by Henry Tilney that the home actually does inhabit all the creepiness she expects. She convinces herself that General Tilney had a hand in his wife's death and searches her room and the rest of the abbey for any clue that will tell her the truth. She spends sleepless nights wondering and letting her fears get the best of her. Of course there is a wild storm outside to accompany all of this. Henry makes Catherine realize that she is ridiculous, and that life and art do not always inspire each other. Gothic novels are meant to be thrilling because they are a diversion from life.
This novel is definitely a coming of age story, which I enjoyed a great deal. It's very different from the other novels I have read by Austen because it mainly about Catherine and not the other characters, although they do move along her story. Catherine is so naive and I felt myself cringing at some of her thoughts. She is completely oblivious to the fact that John Thorpe is courting her and to Isabella Thorpe's bitchy motives. The novel is written in such a way that you can see all the stupid things Catherine thinks but it is obvious that she doesn't know they are stupid. It's not all her fault though, obviously she is young and John Thorpe does not help matters. He plays with the Tilney's minds and leads them to think very different things about Catherine than are actually true.
I liked this one. I felt like it dealt a great deal with perception, which is a common theme in many of Austen's novels. My favorite part was the way the ride home from Northanger Abbey looks so different from the ride there because she realizes that everything she saw on the way there was a working of her imagination. I sympathized with Catherine when she began to realize that everything she thought about the world is... wrong. Don't you hate that? The novel ended a little too tidy for me, but that is a common complaint with Austen.
Pub. Date: February 2008 (Reissue)
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 256pp
I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.
Thanks to Valerie from Hachette Book Group USA, I have 5 paperback copies of The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold to give away! This giveaway is open to US and Canada only.
The Rules:
To enter, comment on my blog. To be entered twice, blog about this contest. Please be sure to include your email address and the link to your blog if applicable. Contest ends Saturday, September 20 at NOON Eastern Time.
Thanks to Hachette Book Group USA, I have one copy of The American Journey of Barack Obama available to give away!
Description:
For decades Americans have turned to LIFE to see, understand, and remember the most important events and people of our time. Just as LIFE once opened up the glittering Kennedy White House, LIFE now focuses its lens on Barack Obama. The American Journey of Barack Obama covers the candidate from his childhood and adolescence to his time as editor of The Harvard Law Review and his Chicago activist years, culminating with the excitement and fervor of the historic 2008 Democratic National Convention. The unfolding drama of Obama's life and political career is cinematic in scope, and never has it been presented so compellingly. In addition to a powerful array of photographs that were taken by many of the country's greatest photographers (and some that were snapped, in the quiet moments, by Obama family members themselves), this book also includes a Foreword by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, an
incisive narrative biography and original essays by some of our finest writers, including Gay Talese, Charles Johnson, Melissa Fay Greene, Andrei Codrescu, Fay Weldon, Richard Norton Smith, Bob Greene and several others. Many readers will find a new understanding of Obama. All readers will feel that they are bearing witness to a singular, undeniably American story.
Contest ends November 15. To enter, just leave a comment. Open to US and Canadian residents only.
I've just returned home from a big trip that included driving across much of the (USA) country. While out and about I found myself wanting to read about the areas and places I was seeing, in fact, I sometimes wish I could collect a book from each state and city I come across that tells of its history, culture and personality.
Which brings me to the question of the week... what book/novel would you suggest for someone like me, someone interested in learning about your state, city and/or country? What book do you think is perfect for presenting the history and culture of your place of residence in the most perfect and interesting way?
If you can't think of something for your own home, perhaps you've read something from another place that you feel should be mentioned as worthy to be on this list.
I look forward to your answers and hopefully we can come up with a fun list where lots of different places are represented!
Promotional blitz: Angelina Jolie, with Kung Fu Panda 2 co-star Jack Black, has revealed how her children sat with her as she recorded the animated movie
Helping hand: Angelina and Brad with, from left, Vivienne, Shiloh, Knox, Zahara, Pax and Maddox, pictured in New Orleans in MarchVIA 'That's just not funny mummy': Angelina Jolie reveals her six children are her toughest critics
And the winner is...
Cindy, I'm sending you an email now to obtain your email address!
Congrats!
Don't forget, you still have 7 days to enter to win Made in the U.S.A by Billie Letts!
And the winners are:
Winners, please access this form to claim your prize and submit your mailing address. Congratulations!!
