Sogni D'Oro

This is a snapshot of my nightstand. I just finished reading Blackbird House last night when I got home from work. It was a wonderful story collection about the generations of inhabitants of a little farm on Cape Cod. There are beautiful themes running through all of the stories...sorrow, love as an anchor, ghosts. I'm looking forward to reading Alice Hoffman's other books (like The Ice Queen, a grown-up fairy tale about lightning strike survivors, which I'm starting tonight).

Flavio started reading Pinocchio to me when he was here. I got it on clearance when my local B&N was moving to another location, but unfortunately it's one of those abridged versions for children. When I'm in Italy (26 days!!), I plan to buy it in the original Italian. I'm hoping it will help me learn the language. Or it may just join my small collection of books in languages I can't read.

I bought Grimm's Fairy Tales when Flavio was here. It's not the complete collection (which I have in paperback, packed away somewhere in the garage), but it had such a pretty cover and one of those lovely little attached ribbon bookmarks. I'm a total sucker for those.

The lavender vanilla pillow mist from Bath & Body Works is one of my new favorite things. It makes my sheets smell so soft and sweet, like a baby. Behind that is the egyptian cotton scented candle I bought with Flavio back in March (he has one too, which he keeps in an espresso cup). The nasal decongestant has been my sweet relief each morning this week, as I've been waking up completely unable to breathe through my nose.

This afternoon I ordered some books from Amazon. As much as I love to buy them from a bookstore, they're so expensive! And they don't always have the books I'm looking for. Here are the books I've got coming:

• Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire (a retelling of Snow White...I will probably save this for the plane ride to/from Italy)
• Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (the unabridged English translation)
• The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen (I really loved Garden Spells but didn't know until today that she'd come out with a new book back in May!)
• Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman (Blackbird House was so good, and I love this movie, so I think I'm really going to enjoy this book)