Hello anonymous reader! I write this in the middle of a “snowicane”. I confess that I didn’t make that up…the weathermen did. Connecticut has received a record rain fall today and by midnight the rain will be turning to snow. Lucky me, I live about a mile and a half from work *sarcasm*. In case you are wondering, I work as a customer service representative for a commercial insurance agency. I wear many hats at work – I do claims, some back end work for other CSRs, I service my own small book of business and I do part time IT…all while talking to my fellow Viners on company time.
Oh yeah, before I continue blabbing my name is Jackie. I also go by Jack, Jacks, Jack-in-the-crack (by my loving boyfriend), J or Jacqueline (if you like a mouthful). Oh and Sweet Ass™ by Allison. In a few days this Sweet Ass™ will be turning 29 years young.
Besides, all my J nicknames I’m also known as the Queen of Smut on the Book Vine. I have Jon-Bear to thank for revealing my closeted romance addiction. My reading tastes vary from historical fiction to mystery to fantasy and so on, but I tend to gravitate towards the romance section. I can’t help but loving a strong heroine and a handsome alpha male fighting with each other for 100 something pages, only to find out how much they love each other and end up getting it on by the end of the book. Nothing like a happy ending and the steamier that ending the better! I’ve pretty much been reading romances since I came out of the womb, but I have some standards. I don’t read Harlequins or cheesy soft porn novels…although I’m dying to read the nasty version of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice that Allison promised to send me ages ago *glares at Allison*. I love, love historical romance. My favorite historical romance authors are Julie Garwood and Lisa Kleypas. I’m also into paranormal romance. Werewolves, vampires, shape shifters…oh my!! My two favorite series for this genre of romance are the Black Dagger Brotherhood series and Sookie Stackhouse series.
Unfortunately, I have no cute pictures of pets to share. After a series of fish (miss you Hiram Jr., Mikey, Blue and Tiger) I decided that maybe I'm not quite mommy material just yet. So I've stuck to plants...well just bamboo at the moment because I don't seem to have a green thumb either.
So yup, that's me and my confessions. I play on the internet while at work, I have a serious romance addiction, I can't cook, I'm a fish and plant killer, but I sure can make you a pretty scarf.
I am Jon, otherwise dubbed Jon-Bear, Koalino, Furball, Gumnuts or being the only male amongst these wonderul women - The Harem Master.
My Koala related Monica derives from my Good reads avatar, chosen to reflect my adopted country of Australia and of course my fluffy cuddly nature.
I am a passionate traveler and photographer, I dabble in piano playing but get easily daunted by the magnitude of what it takes to be any good, I love film, music and of course books. I used to think fiction was a bit nonsense and preferred biographies and historical non-fiction to something that was just a 'story'. I have come to see the error of my ways and realise there is so much enjoyment to be had from beautifully phrased words of fiction, and much to be learned from reading a well written and researched novel about a place, theme or situation you have not read about before. My path to fiction was well and truly paved by Rose Tremain's 'Music and Silence' and Eugenides' Middlesex, which i read back to back after picking from Oranges list of 50 essential reads and i was totally engrossed. Thank you Rose and Jeffrey!.
The Phenomenon of the Book Vine from its humble beginnings over the year and the novel idea of sending a treasured book around the globe, has grown and grown. Each of us has shared so much with each other online and we truly feel like a family, supporting each other through difficult times, making each other smile, occasionally showing our claws and making up again, and of course discussing books and reading.
These are my feet. I come from the south coast of England and I have been alive for twenty four years. 
Well, this marks the start of me trying to find interesting things to say. When we started our book vine several months ago I'm not sure if any of us knew what we were in for. We've got quite the dysfunctional family dynamic now, and this blog should turn out to be a hoot unless we totally screw it up.
I'm 23, the youngest of us all. I'm working on finishing up my degree in English. I hope to end up with a Master's in Library Science even though I'm not 100% sure what I'll do with it. In a few months I plan on moving to Norman, OK and accomplishing all that within the hallowed halls of the University of Oklahoma. We'll see how that goes.
Reading is, of course, my main hobby. I love reading anything and everything. I usually go through a period of several weeks with one genre and then suddenly snap out of it and move onto something else. I mainly switch between historical fiction, fantasy, paranormal and smut (I love reading smut with Jackie especially!). I love mysteries too, but I usually only end up reading them if they're part of a series. I especially love reading series period, because I get addicted to characters and don't like letting them go. I actually just finished re-reading one of my favorite series...the In Death series by J.D. Robb.
Trying to pick my favorite books and keep the list narrowed down is a ridiculously impossible feat for me. I won't even try. Hopefully as the blog unfolds I'll have time to regale everyone with most of them. My recent favorites are Soulless by Gail Carriger, Betrayal of the Blood Lily by Lauren Willig (which is 6th in one of my favorite series, the Pink Carnation books), and the Troubleshooters series by Suzanne Brockmann. The only books I can claim as ultimate favorites are fairly cliche...both the Harry Potter and Anne of Green Gables series.
Anyway, I'll leave you with a picture of my pride and joy, Sadie. I am ridiculously in love with her, isn't she cute?
Hello there. It's very strange to be writing for anonymous masses... or probably more apt, random internet wanderers trusting their path to StumbleUpon. Hopefully, random blog reader, you will be amused by my rambling attempts at cohesive thoughts and hilarity. Or not. *shrug*
The first picture is Alfie in his "No, don't READ, PLAY!" pose. The second is Indica being nosy with a bunch of books that were given away. Alfie is in the background, sleeping. Look for the cow spots. :)
Anyway, if you couldn't tell from the abundance of books in the above pictures, I enjoy reading. My favorite authors are Stephen King and Jane Austen (yeah, like polar opposites, right? That should give you an idea of the range of my reading tastes), but I'm willing to give anything a try. My absolute LEAST favorite book is Beloved, by Toni Morrison. I know that book is beloved (ha, get it?) by many people, but either they had an interpreter (read: Cliff's Notes) or they possess superhuman metaphorical deciphering ability. To me, it made NO sense whatsoever. That's why I hated it.
I generally gravitate towards emotionally difficult books, about death and loss and heartache and suffering. I think that looking at all the ugliness in the world and in ourselves makes me appreciate life all the more. But I cannot stand books, or movies for that matter, that are emotionally exploitive, meaning that they are dishonest and fake. Honesty is a must for me, no matter what.
I own too many unread books, but keep buying more. It's a compulsion. I just love the way that they look on my shelves. Books are beautiful, don't you agree? Some of my (many) favorite books are The Shining, The Stand, The Dark Tower series by Stephen King, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb, Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.
The rest of me, in a nutshell: In addition to reading, I sometimes enjoy knitting, but I can only knit straight things. I can also crochet, somewhat, but not even straight things end up truly straight when I crochet. *sigh* I love food, all kinds, but I could live on Indian food. We have a great Indian food buffet about 20 minutes away that I visit as often as I can. I work for one of the top online travel companies, but I don't get free travel. Boo! I live about 3 hours from New York City, and love wandering around people-watching. I am going to NYC this coming weekend to go to a Joe Hill booksigning and meet up with Jackie, which should be AWESOME. :D
I like loud angry music, like Rage Against The Machine or the Deftones, but NOT death metal. I dislike loud obnoxious stuff in general, otherwise. We have three TVs in our house and watch none of them. We have a huge collection of movies, and watch some of them occasionally. I love to sleep. I have 8 tattoos, with plans for more. I tend to ramble a lot.... Yeah. There you go. Toodles!
I joined Goodreads in July, 2008 and through one of the most popular groups I met a bunch of people who have become closer friends then I could ever have imagined.
In March of 2009 we decided to create a group - but one with a difference. Instead of just talking about books we decided to send a books forwards, in a circular fashion - once a month and every book would be a surprise.
Our members are:
Rachel
Kandice
Emilee
Allison
Heather
Jackie
Becky
Robin (Who unfortunately due to life's little difficulties has not had time to participate and so has dropped out.)
Laura
Jon
Fiona
Jeane
Our books have circumnavigated the globe (more or less) going from one end of the USA to the other, to Australia, to England, to Ireland and back to the USA. Each book was selected by the individual member and has become a part of ourselves. The books that pass through our hands have become something special, something which is more then just a book. The books represent friendship, as cheesy as that sounds, but over the past year we have all come together in ways unexpected.
We started off not really knowing each other very well - but over the past year we have become stronger, better, real true friends. We are all different - we come from different places, countries, different ages, backgrounds, ideas, experiences, and a wide range of book tastes - from fantasy and sci-fi, to crime to historicals, literary... smut!
We share books, we recommend them, we read together and discover new ones that maybe we would never have found before. We also share recipes, life, stories, advice, ups, downs - everything else.
The Book Vine is as much about friendship as about books and hopefully, this blog will represent that.
