Blind date (with a book)

Hello!

Between work and my son's bday party, I've been busier than I'd like to be. Mr Darcy and Lizzy are always on my mind but not on paper... Sad.

The more interesting thing I've done was playing rooky and watching 'Yves' with a friend in a 2pm movie session. Not even my friends believe I've been this distant to culture (either consuming or producing it), so... Through a match-making friend I got a BLIND DATE WITH A BOOK!

What a maaaaaarvelous idea!

I gotta love my friends, Thin guy in special! Look at this lovely gift he found me in Amsterdam! And Yes, I may have influenced him on choosing this destination for his vacations with his hubs. 

He said there were several shelves of wrapped books with little cute cryptic notes scotch-taped to them. 

A TINY TREE AND THE ART OF TELLING A LOVE STORY

revealed itself to be...

How yummy is that?

Back cover is also very eloquent, isn't it?

I'll post page 41 next year, ok? 

Bye from chilly Rio!

Simmering

Hello,

Long time no see...

After my forty posts of forty books, I've been wondering what to talk about. Ultimately, I've been simmering not only in this matter, but in many levels.

We have a plaster copy of Rodin's Thinker in my Architecture school. Big guy, lots to ponder...

Work has been keeping me from Mr. Darcy and my writings. My day job is Architecture as you may have read here on the blog and after a very cavernous 2013, the market is really alive now. I can't afford to seat back and watch things unfold. I have to work. The need for the vile money is real and urgent, I have to make a living...

The problem is that with my Architectural self busy, my Writer wannabe side has to step back and wait. I do miss Darcy and Lizzy though. Now I have many Dizzy projects on the move but on hold. 

45 days in Europe - Portuguese version is 1/3 done, and my beta thinks it's nice enough. With the postponing of our National Jane Austen Society Meeting, my Portuguese versions are postponed as well. I politely listen to Lizzy's nagging on the back of my head telling me what she would say and how she would react to stuff that happens in Milan and London... Only I can't find time to dedicate myself to her.

The Prince is THE man in my head these days. Actually, that Lizzy is making sure I don't forget about them. She is very assured of herself, unlike Friendship of a special kind Lizzy. She has strong ideas and isn't afraid of fighting for what she wants. But much more than that trait of her personality, 

this new book will be about realizing 

when life gives you a second chance. 

How do you identify it is good enough to take the leap?

Especially when the (incredibly sexy and complex) 

main guy's good opinion once lost, is lost forever?

Mr. Darcy is not a second chances guy, at least at first. That's one of the things Lizzy helps him to work out - even without meaning to. I've been planning to talk about Pride and Prejudice's standards, maybe it'll be another post.

I know many people who stopped their unfulfilling lives and started it out afresh. Although it sounds awfully romantic and inspiring, it takes a lot of work and a ton of... faith?

'Leap of faith' would begin to describe the theme of this new book, but it's sketched in my head and not in paper yet. It's... simmering. Although I have four chapters done, I'm considering to re-write most of it. I'm second guessing actions and choices, their past story but incredibly enough, not their future.

Love scenes abound, they are an adult couple sure of what they can reach and the consequences of their actions. How they'll deal with them is the million dollar question...

Check this out:

"...When he sat beside her, she half turned his way to hold both his hands. ‘Darcy, I can’t deny you rock my world. Last time we met…’ Elizabeth lost her words.

‘It was fucking hot.’ He said in an intense low tone that made her tremble.

‘Yes…’

‘We are here now.’ He said.‘I’ve been counting the days, Lizzy.’ 

She shook her head. ‘We can’t.’ 

‘That’s why you are here inside my hotel suite?’ He gave her a patronizing half smile.

‘I’m here because you make me feel weak.’ She released his hands. ‘And because I think I owe you more than a ‘sorry pal, no more burying your bone in my yard’. The second the words left her mouth she blushed and hid her eyes in her hands. ‘That’s not what I wanted to say.’ She chuckled at herself and heard him chuckle in return.

‘Lizzy, relax.’ He said holding her wrists to pull her hands from her eyes. ‘It’s just us.’

When a still smiling Elizabeth opened her eyes, she was surprised to find Darcy's face close to hers and the kiss was inevitable.

They had been holding back for hours, really.

It was such a good kiss, a kiss that lifted the spirit to where it belonged. She had been daydreaming about his kisses for a while, but not since the first time they were together. After that, she had successfully convinced herself this was wrong and should never happen again. But oh, this man… older and mature, so sexy and such a good kisser.

He held her neck and sweet-kissed her for a few minutes. Darcy had been anticipating this encounter with her for so long that he feared an intoxication if he took her in too fast.

She ran her small hands inside his button-down rolled sleeves to feel some of his skin giving him goosebumps. Both clad in jeans and button-downs, very little skin was available even if Elizabeth kept the first buttons undone to show the pretty maxi-necklace and some of her incredible cleavage."

Things heat up between them pretty easily, but I need time to simmer... 

Ponder, think, change stuff. 

Ultimately, I have to find time.

Meanwhile...

Let me simmer.

Pride and Prejudice

I come full circle - from my new Pride and Prejudice fanfiction to the original masterpiece. 40 pages 40 posted.

As I wrote on the book's first page, 

Happy 200th anniversary, 

P&P. May my humble book honor this extraordinary date.

Happy 40th birthday to me. 

May the next 40 bring as much fun!

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen

Chapter 7

page 40

"‘Mamma,’ cried Lydia, ‘my aunt says that Colonel Forster and Captain Carter do not go so often to Miss Watson’s as they did when they first came; she sees them now very often standing in Clarke’s library.’

Mrs. Bennet was prevented replying by the entrance of the footman with a note for Miss Bennet; it came from Netherfield, and the servant waited for an answer. Mrs. Bennet’s eyes sparkled with pleasure, and she was eagerly calling out, while her daughter read,
‘Well, Jane, who is it from? What is it about? What does he say? Well, Jane, make haste and tell us; make haste, my love.’

‘It is from Miss Bingley,’ said Jane, and then read it aloud.

‘MY DEAR FRIEND,—
‘If you are not so compassionate as to dine to-day with Louisa and me, we shall be in danger of hating each other for the rest of our lives, for a whole day’s tete-a-tete between two women can never end without a quarrel.

Come as soon as you can on receipt of this. My brother and the gentlemen are to dine with the officers.—Yours ever,

‘CAROLINE BINGLEY.’"

---

Just imagine what a match-making mama can do with such a note?

Marrrvelous!

So, since December I´ve posted 40 awesome books:

1- 45 days in Europe with Mr. Darcy

2- Jane Eyre

3-  Naked determination

4-  Orgulho e Preconceito

5-  Death comes to Pemberley

6- Inferno

7- Northanger Abbey

8-  A Abadia de Northanger

9- The Mists of Avalon - book 1

10-  The Jane Austen book club

11-  Friendship of a special kind

12-  Colours and years

13-  The ocean at the end of the lane

14- One day

15-  A clash of kings

16-  As esganadas

17-  Poirot salva o criminoso

18-  North and South

19-  The bloody chamber

20-  Twilight

21-  Austenland

22-  Bridget Jones's diary

23-  Breakfast at Tiffany's

24-  Image or Likeness

25-  Tarantula

26-  Dead to the world

27-  Em algum lugar do passado

28-  Quando Nietzsche chorou

29-  Emma

30-  Pollyanna

31-  Lady Susan

32-  A Ladeira da Saudade

33-  The beach

34-  The dead zone

35-  Mansfield Park

36-  Persuasion

37-  The girl with the dragon tattoo

38-  High Fidelity

39-  Contos de fim de

40-  Pride and Prejudice

---

In other words, hold my hand;
in other words,
Happy birthday to me!!!

Let's toast to a juicy 40!

Disclaimer: 40 pages 40 was my way to celebrate my 40th birthday. It's not easy to accept that 'youth' no longer describes me...
By promoting 40 awesome books I like in no way I intend to dupe the original authors. If you, as me, like what you read, buy them!

All 40 books can be found on the right side bar. ►

All images found on Google. Kudos to the original poster.

Contos de Fim de Ano Orgulho e Preconceito Fanfics

E olha que já estou chegando no final da minha jornada... livro nº 39. Vou dar uma roubadinha!

Não é a página 40, mas a página 4!

Como nesta Coletânea o meu conto não está nem perto da página 40, escolhi o equivalente... Vamos lá?

Contos de Fim de Ano

Orgulho e Preconceito Fanfics

Um ótimo começo para um tipo especial de Natal
conto complementar a Friendship of a special kind

Moira Bianchi

página 4

"'Claro!’ Lizzy riu, ainda perdida na imagem em suas mãos.

‘E ainda tem mais!’ Darcy continuou.

‘Conta.’ Lizzy riu de novo.

‘Aulas de tango!’ Ele disse e apertou os olhos.

‘Não!’ Ela arregalou os olhos.

‘Sim! E você pode ter tudo isso apenas descobrindo a palavra mágica... ’ Darcy disse, cruzando os braços sobre o peito e olhando para ela com uma expressão séria.

‘Qual é a palavra-chave que você quer que eu diga, meu amor?’ Lizzy ajoelhou na cama para dar um selinho nele.

‘Você acabou de acertar, Querida.’ Ele disse, derretendo-se nos lábios dela. Sempre se derretia.

Desde que se conheceram, em Meryton, enquanto ele passava férias numa insana viagem com oito amigos de escola que não se reuniam havia 30 anos, Darcy sempre se derretia pela linda e misteriosa mulher de curvas deliciosas, que passava três dias por semana na sua cidade natal somente para fazer aulas de espanhol com os amigos de infância. Tanto a curiosidade quanto a libido de Darcy foram presas fáceis para o charme da bela Elizabeth.

De início ele acreditou que era tesão à primeira vista, mas a resistência dela em ter qualquer relacionamento com ele que ultrapassasse o ‘pinto amigo’ alimentou uma paixão que se transformou em amor forte e dominante. Não havia nada que Lizzy fizesse ou falasse que não soasse perfeito aos ouvidos de
Darcy.

Ricky, seu irmão, caçoava dizendo que Darcy ‘bebia’ o que Lizzy dizia, que ele olhava para ela com olhos de Pepe Le Pew, mas ele não ligava. Estava irrevogavelmente encantado pela sua bela namorada de cintura fina, cabelos compridos, seios deliciosamente bem proporcionados, olhos negros expressivos e língua afiada.

Quando ela finalmente admitiu que o amava tanto quanto ele a amava, na ocasião da morte da sua avó querida, Darcy teve alguns minutos de dúvida pensando que ela tinha dito ‘Eu te amo’ movida pela emoção do momento. Lizzy adorava a sua avó paterna, que sofreu muito com Alzheimer, e ficou devastada quando a doença venceu. Darcy ainda sentia a dor de ouvir a voz melodiosa de Lizzy chorando ao telefone, quando ela ligou de Boston para lhe dar a notícia. Ele nem esperou o convite para acompanhá-la ao enterro; ao saber a notícia, ele levantou da sua mesa de trabalho e correu para o aeroporto. Nesse momento de dor, o lugar de Will Darcy era ao lado de Lizzy Bennett, e não comandando sua empresa em Nova York."

---

Quando me pediram para sintetizar meu primeiro livro de onde saiu este conto, eu achei que contar a estória de 'Friendship of a special kind ' 

 em poucas linhas era difícil para mim. Pensei, pensei e cheguei a esta conclusão:

*suspiro feliz*


Anúncio: 40 páginas 40 é meu jeitinho de engolir celebrar meu aniversário de 40 anos.
Divulgando esses 40 livros bacanérrimos, de maneira nenhuma quero prejudicar os autores.
Se você, como eu, gosta do que lê, compre o livro!
Todos os 40 livros estão listados aqui na barra lateral. ►

Achei as imagens no Google. Créditos a quem postou primeiro.

High Fidelity

How could I resist?
a cool movie, a cool book, good music, John Cusack & Jack Black.

Here we go, 38th book:

High Fidelity

Nick Hornby

page 40

Chapter Four

"The three of us go to the Harry Lauder. Things are cool with Barry now; Dick filled him in when he came back to the shop, and the two of them are doing their best to look after me. Barry has made me an elaborately annotated compilation tape, and Dick now rephrases his questions four or five times instead of the usual two or three. And they more or less insisted that I came to this gig with them.    

It's an enormous pub, the Lauder, with ceilings so high that the cigarette smoke gathers above your head like a cartoon cloud. It's tatty, and drafty, and the benches have had the stuffing slashed out of them, and the staff are surly, and the regular clientele are either terrifying or unconscious, and the toilets are wet and smelly, and there's nothing to eat in the evening, and the wine is hilariously bad, and the bitter is fizzy and much too cold; in other words, it's a run-of-the-mill north London pub. We don't come here that often, even though it's only up the road, because the bands that usually play here are the kind of abysmal second-division punk group you'd pay half your wages not to listen to. Occasionally, though, like tonight, they stick on some obscure American folk/country artist, someone with a cult following which could arrive together in the same car. The pub's nearly a third full, which is pretty good, and when we walk in Barry points out Andy Kershaw and a guy who writes for Time Out. This is as buzzy as the Lauder ever gets.    

The woman we have come to see is called Marie LaSalle; she's got a couple of solo records out on an independent label, and once had one of her songs covered by Nanci Griffith. Dick says Marie lives here now; he read somewhere that she finds England more open to the kind of music she makes, which means, presumably, that we're cheerfully indifferent rather than actively hostile. There are a lot of single men here, not single as in unmarried, but single as in no friends. In this sort of company the three of us — me morose and monosyllabic, Dick nervy and shy, Barry solicitously self-censoring — constitute a wild and massive office outing.    

There's no support, just a crappy PA system squelching out tasteful country-rock, and people stand around cradling their pints and reading the handbills that were thrust at them on the way in. Marie LaSalle comes onstage (as it were — there is a little platform and a couple of microphones a few yards in front of us) at nine; by five past nine, to my intense irritation and embarrassment, I'm in tears, and the feel-nothing world that I've been living in for the last few days has vanished."

---

Top 5 40th pages? Mmmm...
Let me think. 
Hit me, DJ.

Disclaimer: 40 pages 40 is my way to come to terms with celebrate my 40th birthday. By promoting 40 awesome books I like in no way I intend to dupe the original authors. If you, as me, like what you read, buy them!

All 40 books can be found on the right side bar. ►

All images found on Google. Kudos to the original poster.

The girl with the dragon tattoo

Oh dear, I had to drop this trilogy.
This complex and dark story stick to my head and suddently I couldn't sleep anymore...

But cool was the relationship between Bloomkvist and Berger. I mean, wow!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Stieg Larsson

Chapter 3

Friday, December 20–Saturday, December 21

page 40

"Mikael had no trouble imagining that champagne bottles had been uncorked in some newspapers’ back rooms that evening.

Erika had the same attitude to the journalist’s role as he did. Even when they were in journalism school they had amused themselves by imagining a magazine with just such a mission statement.

Erika was the best boss Mikael could imagine. She was an organiser who could handle employees with warmth and trust but who at the same time wasn’t afraid of confrontation and could be very tough when necessary. Above all, she had an icy gut feeling when it came to making decisions about the contents of the upcoming issue. She and Mikael often had differing views and could have healthy arguments, but they also had unwavering confidence in each other, and together they made an unbeatable team. He did the field work of tracking down the story, while she packaged and marketed it.

Millennium was their mutual creation, but it would never have become reality without her talent for digging up financing. It was the working-class guy and the upper-class girl in a beautiful union. Erika came from old money. She had put up the initial seed money and then talked both her father and various acquaintances into investing considerable sums in the project.

Mikael had often wondered why Erika had set her sights on Millennium. True, she was a part owner—the majority partner, in fact—and editor in chief of her own magazine, which gave her prestige and the control over publicity that she could hardly have obtained in any other job. Unlike Mikael, she had concentrated on television after journalism school. She was tough, looked fantastic on camera, and could hold her own with the competition. She also had good contacts in the bureaucracy. If she had stuck to it, she would undoubtedly have had a managerial job at one of the TV channels at a considerably higher salary than she paid herself now.

Berger had also convinced Christer Malm to buy into the magazine. He was an exhibitionist gay celebrity who sometimes appeared with his boyfriend in “at home with” articles. The interest in him began when he moved in with Arnold Magnusson, an actor with a background at the Royal Dramatic Theatre who had made a serious breakthrough when he played himself in a docu-soap. Christer and Arn had then become a media item.

At thirty-six, Malm was a sought-after professional photographer and designer who gave Millennium a modern look. He ran his business from an office on the same floor as Millennium, and he did graphic design one week in every month.

The Millennium staff consisted of three full-time employees, a full-time trainee, and two part-timers. It was not a lucrative affair, but the magazine broke even, and the circulation and advertising revenue had increased gradually but steadily. Until today the magazine was known for its frank and reliable editorial style."

---

did I chicken out?

Unicorned out too...

You can bet on it...

Disclaimer: 40 pages 40 is my way to come to terms with celebrate my 40th birthday. By promoting 40 awesome books I like in no way I intend to dupe the original authors. If you, as me, like what you read, buy them!

All 40 books can be found on the right side bar. ►

All images found on Google. Kudos to the original poster.

Persuasion

Hello,
these days I have been busy with work & life and have been reflecting on how much we sacrifice for the ones we love. We put up with people who usually wouldn't have a second oportunity to get on our nerves, endless hours of cartoons and torturing kids' parties, bad movies that you would never had chosen to watch on a saturday night, etc...

As if on cue, here I had this post almost ready, it's the 36th page 40, THE adult Austen.

Persuasion

Jane Austen

page 40

Chapter 8

"From this time Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot were repeatedly in the same circle. They were soon dining in company together at Mr Musgrove's, for the little boy's state could no longer supply his aunt with a pretence for absenting herself; and this was but the beginning of other dinings and other meetings.

Whether former feelings were to be renewed must be brought to the proof; former times must undoubtedly be brought to the recollection of each; they could not but be reverted to; the year of their engagement could not but be named by him, in the little narratives or descriptions which conversation called forth. His profession qualified him, his disposition lead him, to talk; and "That was in the year six;" "That happened before I went to sea in the year six," occurred in the course of the first evening they spent together: and though his voice did not falter, and though she had no reason to suppose his eye wandering towards her while he spoke, Anne felt the utter impossibility, from her knowledge of his mind, that he could be unvisited by remembrance any more than herself. There must be the same immediate association of thought, though she was very far from conceiving it to be of equal pain.

They had no conversation together, no intercourse but what the commonest civility required. Once so much to each other! Now nothing! There had been a time, when of all the large party now filling the drawing-room at Uppercross, they would have found it most difficult to cease to speak to one another. With the exception, perhaps, of Admiral and Mrs Croft, who seemed particularly attached and happy, (Anne could allow no other exceptions even among the married couples), there could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved. Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement.

When he talked, she heard the same voice, and discerned the same mind. There was a very general ignorance of all naval matters throughout the party; and he was very much questioned, and especially by the two Miss Musgroves, who seemed hardly to have any eyes but for him, as to the manner of living on board, daily regulations, food, hours, &c., and their surprise at his accounts, at learning the degree of accommodation and arrangement which was practicable, drew from him some pleasant ridicule, which reminded Anne of the early days when she too had been ignorant, and she too had been accused of supposing sailors to be living on board without anything to eat, or any cook to dress it if there were, or any servant to wait, or any knife and fork to use.

From thus listening and thinking, she was roused by a whisper of Mrs Musgrove's who, overcome by fond regrets, could not help saying--

"Ah! Miss Anne, if it had pleased Heaven to spare my poor son, I dare say he would have been just such another by this time."

Anne suppressed a smile, and listened kindly, while Mrs Musgrove relieved her heart a little more; and for a few minutes, therefore, could not keep pace with the conversation of the others."

---

That's another good line masterly penned by the genius... 
half agony, half hope 
that by sacrificing we are doing something nice for the ones we love...

Disclaimer: 40 pages 40 is my way to come to terms with celebrate my 40th birthday. By promoting 40 awesome books I like in no way I intend to dupe the original authors. If you, as me, like what you read, buy them!

All 40 books can be found on the right side bar. ►

All images found on Google. Kudos to the original poster.