Feature & Follow #2

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!

Find a “new to you blogger” and feature their button on your post this week. Tell us why this blogger stands out to you.

  Terri, the owner of Second Run Reviews, came with the awesome idea to do a Q&A with each other since we're featuring each other for this week's F&F! (She's always full of great ideas!) I hope everyone enjoys these as much as we did asking and answering them! And don't forget to check out her blog, Second Run Reviews.

1. What's the one book you think everyone should read? Why?

If I had to chose just one, I think it would have to be The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi. I've posted about this book a lot recently because, for me, the book is very empowering.  It's a wonderful historical fiction novel about Charlotte who is the only passenger on a ship bound for the United States. Because she is a young girl and the only passenger on this long voyage, Charlotte has some life changing experiences.  In the end, she makes a very brave decision, which for the time the book is set, I've always found very inspiring.

2. Which book, song, and/or movie is your happy place to escape to?

I'm a huge fan of Breakfast at Tiffany's starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard.  I'm a huge romantic and there's something so inspiring about the story of a naive girl trying to find her way in NYC and unknowingly falling in love that makes me just melt.  The scene where Holly is sitting on the window sill singing Moon River is just divine.

When I visited London in 1999 for a college class I brought home a print of the official movie poster (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tmleblanc01/688471666) which now hangs in my movie themed living room. And this past year, when I visited NYC for the first time, I had my picture taken in front of Tiffany's (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tmleblanc01/8862890434) and the play I chose to see on Broadway was an adaptation of the novella.  I have read the novella, but I don't find it as uplifting as the movie.

Fun fact: Emilia Clarke, who currently plays Daenerys Targaryen on The Game of Thrones, played Holly Golightly.

3. Where's your favorite place to curl up with a good book and read?

My bed with my cats.  It's been so cold in Iowa this year with all the snow and Polar Vortices (I hope that's the right pluralization!) that I've probably been spending way too much time in our bedroom.  The window is on the south side of the building so for a good portion of the day the sun shines in there and makes it so summery!

4. What's the most amusing thing that you've had happen to you that involves your horse?

Oh, boy, good question!  I've been pretty lucky with Jezebel (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tmleblanc01/5172085866).  She's an older horse with a good temper; there isn't much that sets her off.  But in the spring, we have some amusing moments jump out of your skin moments (shying) because she seems to forget what lawn mowers are and moving tall grass.  In the fall, when we ride around the property where the Barn is we can't go near the fields with the dry corn.  The whispering of the corn freaks her out.  We joke that its because the Children in the Corn really do exist.

5. What do you consider the most interesting part of your blog?

I love my theme.  I'm a huge theatre and movie fan.  I've tried to name the different sections of my blog after the theatre.  Center Stage is Home.  Meet the Cast is the About Me section.  A Note from the Director (often found in playbills) is where I explain why I started my blog.  The Marquee is an overview of upcoming posts, challenges I'm participating in and local bookish events.  If you look down the right side you'll notice that my Currently Reading list is called "What's on Stage" and my To-Read list is called "Waiting for an Entrance." And finally, my followers are called fans.  It seems really quite clever to me!