Books I’ve Read

October 2011

 

 Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve never read an Agatha Christie novel before.  Good thing it got picked for Book Club or I would have never discovered how delightful these books can be!  The audio was hard to listen to at first… all the French accents were tough to understand, but after a while I got used to it.  Once I could understand everyone and learned all the names, it was very enjoyable to listen to.  I’m looking forward to many more Agatha Christie novels in my future. 

 

 

  The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley

This is the second book about the character Flavia de Luce.  Flavia is an eleven year old girl obsessed with chemistry and death.  Flavia also happens to be a great detective.  Between Flavia’s obnoxious sisters, the 1950’s English country setting, and her obsession with chemistry, there’s plenty to keep you entertained.  This was the perfect book to take on my trip to Seattle last month.   It kept me entertained on my long days of travel back and forth.  I highly recommend this series of books.  Currently reading #3 in the series and so far it has not disappointed! 

 

I haven’t updated my good reads account in ages, so I’m feeling like there was another book I read in October that I’m currently forgetting about. If I remember it soon, I’ll update this post to include it.  I’m currently reading 3 books right now, so November’s post should be much more exciting! 

Books I’ve Read

September 2011

  The Good, the Bad and the Undead:  Kim Harrison

This is the second novel in the Rachel Morgan series.  I wouldn’t recommend reading these out of order… they aren’t really stand alone books.  Not because it’s one big continuous plot, but because there is so much given in the magic world explanations that don’t really get repeated or explained again in subsequent books.  I still think this series reminds me of a cross between Stephanie Plum and Twilight.  The first book was pretty tame, but the second one was definitely more racey.  Not sure if they are going to keep that trend, or not, but the overall plot was really good.  There are several more, but I’ve got a bunch more books on my “want to read” list that I will probably try to tackle before I come back for Rachel Morgan #3. 

 

  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks:  Rebecca Skloot

This was our September book club book.  Again, someone picked a book that I would have NEVER chosen on my own.  And again, I was blown away by how good it was.  This is the biography of the real life woman, Henrietta Lacks, who was the unknowing donor of the world famous HeLa cells.  This story is both inspiring and tragic.  Inspiring in how many medical advances and discoveries were made because of Henrietta’s cells.  But tragic in the way the doctors/researches dealt with her family.  Anyone who has any kind of medical background at all will LOVE this book.  I don’t have any medical know how, and I loved it anyway. 

Books I’ve Read

August Edition

Fablehaven:  Keys to the Demon Prison by Brandon Mull

I’m so happy to say I finished this series.  I liked it, but I didn’t love it.  Listening to the audiobooks was probably a bad call.  Some voices I loved, others I hated.  I often felt like I was trudging through a Sunday School lesson, and I couldn’t believe that Seth kept making the same stupid mistakes book after book after book.  Having said all that, though, I think they are a great series for those in the tweener age range.  Megan (14) loves them, and I think Ian (11) would love them if I could get him to take the plunge.  (He’s not a big reader of anything. )   The last book was action packed, not at all boring, and I loved how the ending wrapped up all the loose ends that had been developed over the first 4 books.  I’m glad to say I finished the series, but once was enough for me!

  Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross

This was our book club pick for August.  A friend of mine has been trying to get me to read this for years, so she finally picked it for book club, so I would be forced to finally buckle down and get it done!  It’s a fictional telling based on a myth (not widely known) that back in 800’s there was a woman Pope.  It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book of this magnitude and her research on the Dark Ages was thorough and educational.  The book was extremely well written.  The plot was plausible and believeable.  What I didn’t really like was Joan’s character.   How she handled some situations bothered me.  But I think I was in the minority on this point, and almost everyone LOVED everything about the book.  I would love to get my hands on a copy of the movie version that was made a couple years ago, but it’s not available in DVD in the US.  If you buy it on Amazon, you have to have a special DVD player that will play DVD’s coded for Europe.  Weird, no?

For the Love of Pinterest….

If you haven’t joined Pinterest yet, what are you waiting for???  It’s an online forum where you can bookmark things you like from the world-wide-web.  I can’t tell you the times I’ve seen a cute gift idea or a recipe on a blog that I wanted to try later and then when I went looking for it… yep, you guessed it… I couldn’t find it.  That’s the most maddening thing ever!  Pinterest has solved my online dis-organization.  I feel so Martha-ish.  It’s amazing, I’m telling you… you will love it.

Here’s a DIY project for floating bookshelves I saw on Pinterest that I wanted to duplicate.  Click here for the original blog post to see how they did it.   Is that newspaper wallpaper?  Interesting….  Another place on Pinterest had these linked to an online store where you could purchase a “floating bookshelf” for $11 a piece.  I wanted 4 shelves for my project, so that would actually be kinda pricey… ouch!

So last week, I went to Home Depot to buy the supplies.  After confusing one employee there with my odd project plans, I came home with 4 sets of “L” brackets and a package of heavy duty wall anchors to hang them up with.  Total cost was $15. 

These are the baskets I bought at Ikea right after we moved here.  They have been where we have kept the kids books for years and I keep them right by the kids bedroom doors… except that look at how full they are… and I’ve cleaned them out recently, too!  I had stacks and stacks of YA books downstairs with no home, and no room in our book baskets. 

Here’s what you’ll need:   4” L-brackets, with wall anchors suitable to hold a heavy load.  I weighed my heaviest stack of books and it was 15 pounds.  The wall anchors I bought will hold 50 pounds, so I shouldn’t have any issues.  You’ll also want a drill, a measuring tape, a ruler, a pencil and a screwdriver. 

Here’s what I did.  I divided my books into 4 stacks.  Then I measured the tallest stack.  (It was almost exactly 12”)  Then I decided I wanted 7” in between the top of the book stack and the bottom of the next one, so I measured 19” in between each bracket extension.  Did that make sense?  It really doesn’t matter what your measurements are, as long as you level your brackets.  I was working with a skinny wall, so I wanted mine to be perfectly aligned vertically.  Although, if I could do this with more books and a wider wall, I might stagger them from side to side for more visual interest.   And I ended up making a bigger gap between the two middle stacks to accommodate the light switch, but I think it still looks good.

And voila!  One trip to Home Depot and one hour of labor later, this is what I had!  I couldn’t believe how easy this project was.  The kids noticed it right away when they got home from school and everyone loved it.  Now we have a special place to store all of our favorite books, and if they want to pop out of their room to grab a book, all their books will be in one area. 

Books I’ve Read

July 2011:

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison

My sister in law recommended this series to me a couple of years ago.  I’ve had the sticky note I wrote the book title on floating around my kitchen for ages.  I finally got around to hunting it down at the library.  And then I saw the cover art… and I started to wonder if this book was going to be a little to smutty for my taste.   I’m glad I didn’t let the cover art scare me away.  This book was wonderful!  It’s a fantasy novel that reminds me of a cross between Twilight and Stephanie Plum.  If you didn’t understand that last sentence, it’s about a witch who is a bounty hunter and tracks down rogue vamps, weres, and warlocks.  It’s way cleaner than a Stephanie Plum novel, but just as entertaining. 

 

 

  Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

I was so intrigued by Outliers that I had to listen to another Gladwell book.  It did NOT disappoint.  I don’t know how to explain it well, so here’s a clip from the summary on the Good Reads website:  In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple: the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of "blink": the election of Warren Harding; New Coke; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing" - filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.

 

  The Spy by Clive Cussler

This is the 3rd book in the Isaac Bell series.  I really enjoyed it.  It was different from the 2nd book because it sends our Detectives into the world of international espionage.  We had everything from European spies to New York mobsters to a cameo appearance by Fred Astaire.  It also spent a chapter or two in my home-turf of Solano County which was kind of fun to read about.  Thankfully, Cussler does thorough research and even made sure the reader pronounced the names like Suisun and Vallejo correctly!  And our hero even subverted an attack on Mare Island.  I just checked on the next book in the series and it comes out in September… hopefully by then I will have cleared my ipod out and will be ready for the next one!

Books I’ve Read

April Edition

The Wrecker by Clive Cussler

This is the second book in the Isaac Bell series.   I enjoyed this book but not as much as the first in the series (The Chase.)  Perhaps because the first book dealt a lot with trains and this book again was ALL about trains.  Perhaps because there were similar plot patterns to this one as the first.  However, I still enjoyed it.  And I’m looking forward to the next book in the series, as it should avoid trains completely.  (I think the next one is about submarines.)  Still, the historical content is well researched and fascinating to listen to.  I love the characters Isaac Bell, Marian Morgan, Archie Abbott and the new kid James Dashwood (nickname: Dash.)   This isn’t the type of book I would pick for a book club or a deep discussion, but it’s great escapist fiction to help me get through a day filled with laundry, dishes and other mundane tasks.  I can’t wait for Isaac Bell’s next adventure!

Persuasion by Jane Austen

This was our April Book Club pick.  I’ve read several Jane Austen books, but I honestly didn’t remember if I’d read this one.  I remember reading P&P and I remember S&S and I also recently read Northanger Abbey, but since I’ve seen the DVD version of Persuasion so many times, I couldn’t specifically remember if I’d ever read the book.  It was excellent.  The characters were so well described and I loved this story.  Is there a a bad thing you can say about a Jane Austen story?  I don’t think so.

 

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

This is the second book in the Maze Runner series.  It’s good.  Some questions get answered, some get more confusing.  This series reminds me a bit of the TV show Lost.  Not that they have the same premise, but that they do the same job of teasing me along… lots of mysteries, and just a few answers here and there.  And quite honestly, most of the answers we’ve gotten so far, we can’t really trust to be the truth.  My only complaint about this book is that it’s a classic “filler” book in a 3 book series.  I am always wowed when an author can make all 3 books in a planned series be stand alone reads.  This book was good, and it left me hanging on the edge of my seat waiting for the final installment.  At least it’s not a long wait.  The Death Cure will be released on October 11th!

Books I’ve Read

January and February edition:

I don’t think I did this for January, but I want to start doing this each month.  Just a quick synopsis of books I’ve read and what I think about them.  For this post, I’ll include every book I’ve read so far this year.  Thank goodness there aren’t too many of them.

The Chase by Clive Cussler

My mom has been trying to get me to jump on the CC bandwagon for years… and I just never managed to do it.  When I heard about this new series he has begun, I was very intrigued.  The Chase is about a turn of the century detective who is hired to track down a criminal dubbed “The Butcher Bandit”.  It’s a well told adventure story about the chase through many western states, including Utah.  I really liked how he portrayed the Mormons of that time period.  Well done!  The culminating part of the book is based around the true events of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.  It’s a great story that has enough real history in it to really keep you intrigued.  I loved it, and can’t wait to have time for the next one, The Wrecker.

The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card  

I’m still on the fence about this one.  I usually LOVE what OSC writes, but I found myself constantly disappointed with this book.  The concept was great.  The general story was interesting.  The main characters and their relationships with each other were good.  I just didn’t like some of the little side plots he threw in there.  I felt like it made the plot drag a bit.  The sci-fi concepts and presentation were amazing.  Danny’s attempt to live as a real human was the part that bugged.  And yes, because OSC is a Mormon, I’m going to be a total hypocrite here.  I hold him to a higher standard than I do most authors.  I was completely disappointed with the vulgarity in this book.  It was mostly unnecessary and I thought he could have made his point without going down some of the roads he went down.  I don’t know if I’ll keep reading the remaining books in the series.  Maybe by the time he releases the next one, I will have forgotten my frustrations.  Of course, the characters who caused the inappropriate situations aren’t likely to surface again, but still.  OSC, I expect more decency of you.  That’s what disappointed me the most.

Gregor the Overlander and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins

I started this series last year because it was the same author who wrote the Hunger Games.  It’s a very interesting concept and never ceases to surprise me with the creative plots.  It’s considered JF, but appropriate for YA audience too.  This was the third book in the series.  I don’t even know how to describe this series, but the more books I read, the more I like it.  By biggest complaint with SC is her cliffhanger book endings.  I’ve come to realize that’s just her writing style, and it didn’t bug me so much this time around.  The general gist of this series is about a boy and his sister who fall down a shaft in their laundry room and discover an underground world full of people, giant cockroaches, huge rats and other mammoth sized rodents.  At first I wasn’t sure if I liked the series, but the more I read them, the more I like them.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

This is a series based on the fantasy world first introduced to us in CC’s Mortal Instruments series.  Different characters (mostly… love that Magnus Bane makes an appearance!)  It’s a different story about the same world of people set in a different time, but just as good.  I enjoyed it immensely!  This type of fantasy is Megan’s FAVORITE fiction genre.  She loves everything about vampires, werewolves, shadow hunters and the Downworld.  It’s kinda like Twilight, but kinda not.  This series is set in Victorian era London, and I loved all the historical descriptions. 

The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis

I’ve wanted to read this ever since I read the first book in the Narnia series several years ago.  CS Lewis’s outlook on God vs. the Devil is fascinating and his observations about human nature are spot on.  Screwtape is one of the devil’s many devoted servants who trains other young devils to tempt and lead away humans on earth.  Even as you know he is the Devil’s agent, it’s sometimes hard to remember that the main voice of the story is the opposite of what we should be doing.  This book shows just how easy it is for humans to slip down the slippery slope of sin and made me re-evaluate my attitude about certain things.  Definitely a book to make you think!

 

The Alchemist by Paul Coelho

This book is short and got rave reviews, but I just couldn’t get into it.  It’s about a boy who meets a king who sends  him on a quest to discover his own personal legend.  Written in the form of a fable, the boy learns many lessons along the way and even discovers true love during his quest.  Even though it was a short book, I still felt like it dragged a lot.  If I hadn’t been listening to the audiobook, I would have never been able to bring myself to finish this one.   In fact, I may not have finished it at all, as I got to the end of the last disc, the audio just stopped.  Not mid sentence, but if that was the end, it was abrupt, and made me dislike it even more.    I think with this one, you’ll either love it or hate it.  Sadly, I fell in the latter category.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

In this YA novel, a boy named Thomas wakes up in a glade full of teenage boys.  He has no prior memories, and discovers that the glade is surrounded by a large maze patrolled by deadly monsters.  The boys send runners out to the maze every day to try to find an exit.  After Thomas arrives, thing start to change.  The life the boys have grown accustomed to deteriorates and they are forced to go to more extreme measures to find a way out of the maze that will kill them if they sit around and do nothing.  I loved this book… never a dull moment, plenty of mysteries to unravel and an epilogue at the end that made my jaw drop on the floor in shock.  It’s the first in a (3 part?) series.  Books one and two are in print, book 3 is slated to be released in the fall.   Can’t wait to see what happens next!

Matched by Ally Condie

It seems that Dystopian society novels are all the rage right now… as Matched is another one that falls into that category.  In a world in the future, “The Society” controls everything… how much and what you eat, what you do for a living, who you mate with, and how and when you die.  All things are perfectly timed and arranged to make life for the citizens as perfect as possible.  Cassia encounters a glitch during her “matching” that leaves her to wonder who she should really be matched with, and why she can’t find true love on her own.  While it’s a teenage romance novel, there is enough political plot to keep most readers intrigued.  Megan will LOVE this book.  It’s right up her alley.  Only bummer is that we have to wait for November for book 2 in the series.  Darn!

My “Bookies”…

I haven’t had the time to review as many books as I’d like to, so I’m going to give some “bookie” awards to my faves from this year:

Best Fiction:  This one is a tie.  I honestly can’t decide.  So, I have two favorites for the year – The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale and The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

The Actor and the Housewife was a captivating story that pulled me in deeper than I have been sucked into a book in a long, long time.

The Help was an amazing story about the deep south in the 60’s and what life was like for both blacks and whites, as the civil rights movement progressed. 

With both books, I laughed, I cried, I rejoiced and I despaired… and not necessarily in that order.

Best Non-Fiction:  The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls.  This is an amazing memoir of a woman’s upbringing that will have you saying, “no way!” Over and over and over again…  if you think your family is dysfunctional, think again. 

Best Self-Help:  ChiRunning by Danny Dreyer.  If you are an avid runner, if you struggle with injuries or pain, or if you want to be a better runner than you are, get this book.  Danny teaches a running technique that combines running with Tai Chi, in a way that reduces impact on joints/muscles and maximizes energy and efficiency.  I can’t say enough good things about this book.  Now I want the companion DVD that goes with it.

Best Juvenile Fiction:  Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke.  I haven’t read a lot of JF this year, but this was by far my favorite.  It’s a wonderful tale of dragons and other mythical creatures living in the modern world.  It is entertaining enough for the older crowd and tame enough for the younger set.  I’ve read a lot of Funke’s books, and I think this one is my favorite so far.

Best Young Adult Fiction:  The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan.  The Percy Jackson books are a family favorite right now.  Two of my kids have read them all (Megan has read the whole series 3 times, I think.)  And Ian, my non-reader is reading them, too.  For the record, I started them before the movie was even announced.  In this rare case, I don’t recommend listening to the audio versions of these books.  And I also don’t recommend waiting long periods of time in between books.  (Unless you are a Greek Mythology buff…. in that case you will have no trouble whatsoever keeping track of every character and sub-plot.)  The last book was the perfect ending to the series.  Loved it!

Best Series:  The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare.  I picked this one up after reading a review on www.blogginboutbooks.com.  I don’t know how to describe these books.  They are kinda like Twilight, kinda like Lord of the Rings, and kinda like Harry Potter.  If you enjoy fantasy, teen angst and forbidden love, and if you haven’t tired of witches, vampires and werewolves, then you will likely enjoy this series.  Megan liked them even more than I did.  The first book in the series is called City of Ashes.

Now for the worst – books I won’t be able to recommend:

Didn’t finish:  Rain of Gold  by Victor Villasenor.  This was our book club read a few months back.  I was first turned off by the lack of audio for this book.  Because I couldn’t find the audio, I had to wait for a library copy to be available, which left me with less than a week to finish this one before book club.  I didn’t finish, and I didn’t make it to book club, and within a day or two I lost interest.  This book has merit… I just wasn’t in the right mood to read it in the time allotted.  It’s a dynasty story about a Mexican-American family, written in a similar fashion as East of Eden.  I LOVED East of Eden, but about half way through this one I started to lose interest.  And honestly, I just couldn’t keep going… I don’t think it was the book, it was just me.

Biggest Disappointment:  Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.  What more can I say about this that I haven’t already said?  I’ve griped plenty, but time to let the dust settle hasn’t lessened my disappointment any.  Maybe one day, I will go back and read them all back to back.  I still think that the epilogue in Mockingjay was the most well written chapter in the entire book.  The epilogue was the most moving.  How pathetic is that?

Wasn’t Terrible, but left me wanting more:  Artemis Fowl:  the Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer.  I was sucked into the Artemis Fowl vortex a few years ago, and have enjoyed his books immensely, although the last couple have had plots so complex, that I couldn’t always wrap my simple brain around the concepts. However this most recent book was a letdown.  Artemis isn’t himself in this book, and the villain ends up being a disappointment too.  The big climatic conflict in the end turns out to be so anti-climatic, that I finished the book thinking, that’s it?  Huh?

Now that I’ve wrapped up my year in reading, I plan to work on a wish list for next year’s reading.  I also need suggestions for books to read with our book club for the year, so please send any good ideas my way! 

Book Club

I just got in the library queue for the April book club book: The Help.

I thought I was being so clever and efficient... getting a head start on the book before we announced it at Book Club tomorrow night.

There were three versions of the book, and no available copies of any version, so I put a hold on each type, figuring one would come up pretty quick. But, when I found out what place I was in line, I'm not so sure I will get my hands on the book before we meet in 5 weeks.

This is where I stand in line right now:

Audio book #17
Large Type novel #13
Regular Novel #93

Yikes!

So, either this is a FABULOUS novel,

OR...

it's a school assignment for some English class in our local High School.

I'm hoping for the former.

Help!

Help... just three more days to prepare for our two week road trip...

I'm trying to organize entertainment...

You know...

movies for the car,

books to read,

toys to bring along for the younger ones,

you get the idea!

But, I need two weeks of entertainment for myself too...

I've picked up our current Book Club selection to read while in the car, but seriously, I could finish it in one day (as long as I don't get car sick). It's "The Hunger Games" in case you're dying to know...

What else to bring along?

How will I keep myself entertained when I can't fall asleep for a while because I'm not in my own bed?

When I'm on vacation I enjoy light, entertaining novels. Not deep, dark or disturbing novels. It is vacation after all.

Any suggestions before I go to the library tomorrow?

Recommendations

Here are some of my favorite Christmas Books... just wanted to share some because I love a good sappy, heart warming story of "giving" this time of year....

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

This is not your average John Grisham novel! The movie Christmas with the Kranks was based on this novel and the movie is great, but the book is even better! I bought this book and then loaned it out a few years ago... so if you have my copy, now is the time to fess up! ;-)

The Christmas Train by David Baldacci

(again, not his typical novel) This is a fun Christmas story - romance, danger, second chances, etc....

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

I loved reading this book - it falls in the kids genre, but very touching and entertaining anyway!

Christmas Jars by Jason F. Wright

This is a sappy feel good story about giving... and a great material for a family night lesson or a christmas "experiment" for your own family. I attend TOFW in San Diego where Jason Wright was a presenter, so I feel like I know him personally, even if I really don't....

The Christmas Shoes by Donna VanLiere

This is the first in a series, which I really enjoyed. They are all super short, so you could read all of them in a day or two and in the end, the books come full circle and connect again, which I always enjoy!

Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon

This is kinda part of the Mitford Series... you can read it separately or as part of the bigger whole, but definately more enjoyable when you have some background knowledge on the residents of Mitford....

Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich

This is a Christmas "extra" in the Stephenie Plum series. I started reading those books, but had to quit... I couldn't handle the "potty mouth" of Lula (the x-hooker, bounty hunter associate). But, if you've ever read just one Stephenie Plum book, read this one too, it's pretty clean and an interesting twist on the usual christmas story!

And last, but definately not least...

Unplug the Christmas Machine by Jo Robinson

This is the book for you if you need to detox, take a step back and simplify your Christmas. It really helped me gain perspective on why we make ourselves crazy at Christmas and how we can simplify things, yet enjoy the spirit of the season even more!

So, now it's your turn to share... what are your favorite Christmas Books?

Book Worm

I love to read. I've always loved to read, but I haven't always made the time. I think in High School I got burned out reading because I never seemed to enjoy the books we had to read for English Class. I also don't enjoy having to pick a book apart for an assignment... I enjoy reading just for the pleasure of it. Sometimes I find myself picking books apart and analyzing them, but I don't like being assigned to do it. When I got married, I didn't read much. I was working full time and trying to "be a good wife" in the evenings, which didn't include hibernating in another room with a novel. Besides, I just didn't know what kind of good books were out there. That's when I started reading the "Work and the Glory" series, but I started when there were just 2 or 3, so I had to wait a year for the next one to come out so I could get my "Steed" fix. Then I had kids and who has time to read with a full time job and a toddler?

It wasn't until I had Ian that I really jumped back into the "reading" world head on. About the same time he was born the 4th Harry Potter book was released. I'd never heard of them, but my mom saw a special about the books on the Today show and decided to buy them at Costco. She figured they would be good books to have around for the grandkids when they got a bit older. She decided to read the first one, just to see what they were like. It was all over after that. She read all 4 back to back and then brought her set to me. I had a newborn, so lots of time to read, right? I was skeptical, but read all four in just a couple weeks. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed reading a good book (or books in this case!) I'm amazed no one ever snapped a picture of me sitting in my rocking chair, holding Ian with a bottle and balancing a HP book all at the same time. I became quite good at it!

A little while later, a friend of mine started a "book club" in our ward. I was a total skeptic again. Reading books so you can discuss and analzye them? Totally made me think of High School all over again! Yuck... so I convienently avoided it for a long time. But, I had a great friend, Lisa, who would lend me her copy of the Book Club book after she was done with it, and say, "Christy, you have to read this... it's an amazing book." So, I would.... reluctantly, but I always enjoyed the books she passed on. Finally, I decided to attend Book Club. It had been a crazy month (Eric was in the thick of his MBA program) and I desperately needed a night away. So, I went.... LOVED it... had a GREAT time... made some NEW friends.... and have been a Book Club Enthusiast ever since!

I decided I wanted to post a list of some of my favorite Book Club books - and these are ones that I would have NEVER picked up and read on my own. Obvious Favorites (like HP and Twilight will not be on this list....):

• It's Not About the Bike (memoir by Lance Armstrong)


• Letters of a Nation


• The Hiding Place


• The Eyre Affair (and all sequels)


• Three Weeks with my Brother


• The Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency (series)


• Once Upon a Town


• These is my Words


• The Mitford Series


• The Giver (and sequels)


• Slave


• Rebecca

I've also become quite a fan of Young Adult Fiction. It's generally cleaner and tamer and shorter. I've read quite a bit of it trying to find good books for my kids to read in school. Here's some of my favorites in the YA category:

• Twilight series


• Harry Potter series


• Artemis Fowl series (newest one just got released and I'm chomping at the bit waiting for Taylor to finish it so I can read it....)


• The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians)


• Ella Enchanted


• Anything written by Eoin Colfer (author of Artemis Fowl)


• Anything written by Gail Carson Levine (author of Ella Enchanted)


• Anything written by Shannon Hale (author of the Princess Academy)


• Stargirl


• The Chronicles of Narnia


• Fablehaven

I just discovered this blog and can't wait to explore it more along with all it's great "book" links... hey, this girl is LDS and likes Stephenie Meyer, so she must be a kindred spirit.....

So since most of us still have several weeks of HOT weather left to endure... head to the library, pick up a book or two and just enjoy some good quality time indoors!

What are your favorite books???

Leave a comment and share!

Movies VS. Books

I love to read... I love to watch movies, too. What do you do when they botch the movie of your favorite book? This happened to me when they made The Prisoner of Azkaban. It's my favorite Harry Potter book of the whole series and they RUINED the movie. They took out really critical and important information that they could have put in and it took me MANY viewings to get accustomed to the NEW Hogwarts and the filming style. Even though it's grown on me enough that I no longer hate it, I still silently moan about it... it could have been SOOO MUCH BETTER!

I learned a valuable lesson when I went to the theater to see that movie. Never again would I see a movie about a book that I'd just barely read. When the book is still fresh in my mind, I will sit through the movie and nitpick every little discrepency. I did it with Harry Potter... I did it with The DaVinci Code. I did it with Ella Enchanted. And even though I tried not to... I did it with Eragon too.

Tonight I took Megan and Ian to see Prince Caspian. I have read the first 4 books in the Narnia series, but it's been a really long time (like a couple years), so I just don't remember all the specifics. Even though I was sorely tempted, I didn't re-read the book before seeing the movie. I didn't want the movie experience to be ruined because of it. And I'm so glad I resisted temptation! The movie was wonderful - I enjoyed every minute of it. On the way home, Megan decided her reading project for the summer will be the Narnia series. I challenged her to read all seven books in her eight week summer vacation. I think she can do it... it's almost 800 pages of reading, so that means 100 pages a week. Maybe when she's done, I'll go back and read the whole Narnia series again... and finish it this time! I know some people think this is cheating, but I really enjoy reading the books AFTER I've seen the movie. I read the Lord of the Rings books after I saw all 3 movies, and I'm telling you... I'd have never made it through to the end without the visual imagry the movie provided. My imagination just isn't equipped to visualize the worlds he created without the help of Peter Jackson and gorgeous New Zealand!

I know a lot of you are with me on this one... I'm crossing my fingers about the Twilight movie. If they ruin it, I'll be sooo upset! A couple friends and I have already decided that if they offer midnight showings the night before the opening day, we are going to go! Anyone else want to come... Sheri, come on I know you want to!