Last night The Turtle Party: Book Club finally managed to meet again after too many weeks of delay. Altho we were one member short, we managed to finally get around to discussing our first book selection Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Overall, we liked the book as a group … tho, some people had difficulty or just didn’t like the British humor. Our discussion veered off into the realm of religion and really made for an interesting conversation. It was really cool to hear everyone’s perspectives on the book, whether they liked it or not, which made the whole thing more enlightening overall. We had a really great discussion.

Tamar brought a selection of 4 books for us to vote on as our next selection and we decided as a group to read Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions as our next book:

I haven’t read any of Vonnegut’s work so I’m really excited to check out this book. The next meeting of The Turtle Party: Book Club will be on October 6 and those who are reading along should have read up to the end of chapter 15 by that meeting time.

Tonight I have plans to meet up with Darion and Josh for dinner and/or a movie so that should be fun. Nothing too exciting going on this week … which is just the way I like it :)

Yesterday was a gloriously do nothing day for me. Because of all the running around that I’ve been doing the past few weeks, it was very nice to not have to do a single thing … at all. I toyed with the idea of seeing a movie but, to be honest, I had a hard time getting off the couch. I watched some TV and really put a dent in Valley of the Dolls, the book that I am currently reading:

I have been trying to read this book for the past few weeks, well … for the past few years! It’s been on my book pile forever and I finally got around to reading it. I cannot believe how much I love it. The prose is so well-written, it’s very easy to just get lost in the story. I’m still very early in but I can already understand why this classic book has remained a cult classic for decades.

Tonight The Turtle Party: Book Club meets after much delay … we will FINALLY be discussing Good Omens and should be deciding which book to read next. To be honest, it’ll be great to see the Turtle Party folks again … it’s been too long.

Sarah Jessica Parker, who became a new mommy to twin girls born from a surrogate mother earlier this Summer, was spotted in NYC in possession of a book called The Help. At first, I thought it might be a tome to help new moms learn how to deal with raising twin babies but it turns out that The Help is actually a novel which, according to a review by Entertainment Weekly, sounds like a pretty amazing read:

It’s nice to see that SJP has time to even read a book now that she’s got 3 children to care for. Her nanny, on the other hand, prolly doesn’t have time to sleep let along read a book.

[Photo credit: Splash News]

Yesterday was a nice and quiet day for me, spent most of it indoors re-reading my copy of Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch for The Turtle Party: Book Club. I must’ve read the book at least 5 times before but I just love it each and every time … and this read, I’m taking my sweet time so as to better enjoy the story. I’m just amazed at how adept Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett were at crafting this story together:

I am not kidding when I say Good Omens is one of my fave books of all time. It’s just … a delight. I urge you all to pick up a copy and check it out. It’s a really fantastic book.

I think I’m gonna get out of the house this evening tho, I have a few errands to run and I may go see G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra again. I had so much fun seeing it the first time, I kinda wanna see it again ;)

Each year the Hugo Awards, named in honor of Hugo Gernsback — the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, present awards to deserving artists who excel in science fiction or fantasy works and achievements (kind of like the “nerd Pulitzers“) and this year, those awards were handed out at a ceremony in Montreal, Canada over the weekend. My fave contemporary author, Neil Gaiman, took home his 4th Hugo Award — this time for his novel The Graveyard Book — and Buffyverse maestro Joss Whedon took home an award for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog. Here are a couple photos of Gaiman at the Hugo Awards this weekend with his newest trophy (Whedon was not in attendance) and some deets about Neil’s much-deserved win:

Twin Cities-area writer Neil Gaiman added to his steadily growing collection of awards, picking up a Hugo Award for best novel for “The Graveyard Book” Sunday night in Montreal. This is Gaiman’s fourth Hugo, and the second major award for “The Graveyard Book,” which won the Newbery Medal in January. It is the first time a book has won both the Hugo, awarded for science fiction and fantasy, and the Newbery, which is the highest honor for children’s literature. “It’s wonderful seeing two such different worlds embracing the same book,” said his publicist, Elyse Marshall of HarperCollins. Gaiman had confessed on his blog last winter that when he won the Newbery he had to tell himself not to swear like he did when he got the Hugo. Marshall said he did not swear at the podium Sunday, “although he did swear on Twitter.” (His Twitter message from Montreal is just three words. The second and third words are, “It won!”) Gaiman, who started out writing comic books and fantasy, is a prolific author who lately has concentrated on children’s books. He has three books out in 2009 — “Blueberry Girl,” published in March; “Crazy Hair,” in May, illustrated by Dave McKean, who also worked with Gaiman on “Coraline” and “The Graveyard Book”; and “Odd and the Frost Giants,” due in September and already nominated for a World Fantasy Award. (It was published last year in Great Britain.) “Coraline” was made into a hit movie this year, and “The Graveyard Book” is being made into a movie to be written and directed by Neil Jordan. It is the story of a little boy named Nobody Owens, whose entire family is murdered. Nobody escapes as a baby and makes it to the graveyard, where he is raised by ghosts.

Much love and congrats to Neil and to Joss (who won the award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form) on their respective wins. I was NOT aware that The Graveyard Book was being written and directed by Neil Jordan (of The Crying Game and Interview with the Vampire fame) … that should make for a very interesting movie. If you are interested, you can click HERE to see the full list of Hugo Award winners this year!

[Source, Source]

With all the reading on my plate right now I ended up staying in last night and did a lot of reading. I managed to finish Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets but before moving on to the next book in the series, I decided to start reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold:

My good friend Diana sent me a copy of The Lovely Bones the first week I moved to LA three years ago … and I never got around to reading it. After hearing so many good things from so many of y’all AND since the movie adaption will hit theaters this Fall, I figured now is as good a time to get it read. I’m a few chapters in and am really enjoying the tone of the book. It’s inventive and, thus far, well-written. I hear that it will get sad and that tears may be on my horizon but I think I’m up to the task. Since I’ll be flying to and from Detroit this weekend, I’m hoping to have it finished by Sunday.

Tonight, David and I are going to the LA premiere of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra at Mann’s Chinese Theater here in Hollywood … I’ve been anxious to see this movie for far too long, I can’t wait to see it for myself. I’m hoping to inadvertently run into Channing Tatum tonight … wish me luck ;)

Yesterday afternoon David and I got to spend a few fun hours with our dear friend Marissa who was flying from NYC to Hawaii and had a long layover here in LA … we picked her up, got our asses to Chick-Fil-A and had a grand ol’ time:

We’re hoping to see her when we get back east to NYC next month … but it was so fun getting to hang out with her for a short while yesterday :)

Last night I met up with Tamar, Ollie, Caleb, Andy and Jason at Tam’s place for the inaugural meeting of The Turtle Party: Book Club. After our first order of biz (to name the club) was completed, we got to the matter of selecting the book. I came prepared with 4 options and we all decided to go with Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett:

I was the only person to have read the book before and I am more than happy to read it again. After we finish this book, another person will over a selection of titles for us to agree on and we go from there. Here is the first photo of our book club:

Little Miss Lola, the pooch, is our book club mascot … Ollie is working on our secret handshake. We’ve decided to create a website for the book club and a Twitter account can be found HERE if any of y’all wanna follow along. I’m not entirely sure how we’ll be able to integrate those of you out there interested in reading along but … we’re gonna do our best to accommodate all y’all if possible :) If you have any feedback or suggestions, please send them along. We’ll be meeting on the first and third Tuesday of every month … it should be very fun :)

I’m not sure what is going on this evening but I’ve got some reading to do. I’m hoping to finish Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and then moving on to The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold … and, of course, Good Omens. So much reading … I love it!!

I also have to announce that today is my goddaughter Zakiya’s 4th birthday!!

Can you believe that little Princess Z is already a 4 year old kid?! OY!! I’m looking forward to celebrating her birthday with her when I am home in Detroit this weekend. But please join me in sending lots of Birthday Lurve to Zakiya today! xo