65 Books in a Year: Book #13 The Silver Linings Playbook

You know how it is...Bradley Cooper, with his perfect curls and dancing blue eyes, entices you to watch a movie about a man suffering a mental breakdown. You find out that said movie is actually a book and before you know it, instead of watching a movie with the chick from "The Hunger Games" and Robert DeNiro and dancing you've found the book and read it amid the chaos of the busiest time of the year.

And, even though the book isn't really about dancing and the guy doesn't really remind you of Bradley Cooper at all, you love every minute of it.

Pat Peoples is a guy who loves silver lining and he believes the world is full of them. Strangely, Pat isn't wrong about this; even when you are beaten down and someone steals your shoes there's a friend to help you. He's so sure that everything will turn out perfectly that he has blocked out any and everything that is horrible in his life. This includes how long he's been 'sent away' and it definitely includes the horrible reason that he's been sent to a mental institution in the first place.

His unorthodox psychologist keeps him grounded through their mutual love of football. His mother gives him all the love and attention he needs to help him along the way. His brother helps ease him into the present. And, Tiffany? Tiffany takes him all the biggest roller-coaster ride of his life. This includes lessons about what it means to love someone, a dance contest for the clinically depressed and a silent date at a diner.

There's never been a more romantic bowl of cereal.

I've yet to see the movie, not really sure I need to. I'm not sure that even Bradley Cooper could improve it--yes, it's just that good.

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

I absolutely love the writing of Graham Greene. I especially enjoy his Catholic novels. I was introduced to these deeply personal and rich novels in college when I had to read Brighton Rock for a lit class. I became obsessed with the idea of a novel getting away from you. The idea of Green trying to write a detective story that turned into a morality tale is an idea I still find fascinating. I read The Heart of the Matter and The End of the Affair on my own later that year and a few years later a friend let me borrow The Power and the Glory. Although these books are just too perfect, my favorite, by far, is The End of the Affair.

I have always been a sucker for a love story where one person in the relationship loves the other person so much that they can never be together; add to that mix some sort of love triangle in which there's an insipid husband or myopic lover and I am sold.

I think it is because of this book that I understand the fact that in order to truly hate someone or something you truly are feeling something (pain, anger et cetera) towards the very thing you are trying to forget, and, having feelings means there's still hope of reconcilation. Hate can turn into love just as easy as love can become hate. It's when there isn't any feeling at all that you've got to worry. The heart knows even when the mind doesn't really want to at all and when you read this novel you understand what happens between Sarah and Maurice way before Maurice does and you understand that Maurice's pain at never seeing Sarah again is because he loves her so much. You may not realize the fact that she loves him too until the very end, but you know that Maurice's is a mean, selfish man because he feels too much not because he feels nothing at all.

The End of the Affair not only has all of these traits, it also has a gorgeous movie (the version starring Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore). There is a scene, which starts on the couch and ends on some stairs, that is so sexy and romantic and tragic at the same time I hold my breath when I watch it. 

Watch the movie, read the book...learn a lesson or two about sacrifice and redemption, do it...do it...now.

65 Books in a Year: Book #2 Twice A Bride

I got this to review from Blogging for Books.

This book is the fourth and final book in a series centered around the Sinclair sisters of Cripple Creek, Colorado.

From reading this book, I suppose the other three books are about:

• They are all married although one got left at the alter.
• They moved to Cripple Creek because their father made them. He moved to Paris.
• Two have children; one really wants a child.
• Miss Hattie takes care of them.
• I think one may have gotten sick.

And, although it was pretty easy to catch on I really disliked the fact that I didn't know going in that this was the 4th a series, as there were still some parts that kept me hanging and annoyed. I appreciate that it is not about a Sinclair sister at all, but about the sister of the pastor's wife (the pastor's wife being one of the sisters), although I think bits of her story are in one of the other books. I suppose we get enough through flashbacks...maybe.

Mona Hodgson is an excellent writer at setting the scene and in terms of creating great characters who trust in God as they head out West, I'll gladly compare her to Janette Oke. Hodgson's characters are likeable and real. I especially like Trenton Van der Veer. His dislike of going to church is truly believable and transcends time. I love that he is a real man with real feelings and Hodgson's let's us know that while he may have a stutter he appreciates women, gets confused by women, and, is a little lost, because of a woman. The scene in the church parlor is just lovely. There are also many other scenes that Hodgson renders so completely that I felt like I was there and, well, I wanted to be.

Pick up this book is you want a romance with a true look at what it means to be a Christian and to trust in the Lord at all times. Pick up this book if you like a good historical romance, I promise you will not be disappointed.

The more I write about this book, the more I realize that I need to give it 4-stars, not my original 3-stars...I think those were based soully on the fact that I wasn't prepared to read the fourth book in a series and it made me a little perturbed. It would seem this book can stand alone pretty well. I am little sad that I don't feel the need to read the other three books, as I feel I've received enough of their stories.

50 Books in a Year: Book #56 Mare's War #59 Dark Water #60 The List #63 Let It Snow

So, the above four books are pretty amazing and I'm kind of sorry that I'll be speed reviewing them. I hope you'll  get the idea of how much I love them, although they are all quite different. I'll be putting up full reviews on Teen Text Talk and will link to those as I complete them...which, um, may be the 12th of Never....we'll see.

Dark Water 
(edited from a conversation on YA Reads for Adults...where you too can join and I love that this was our guest author selection and Laura McNeal was there to talk with us about her book)

I love the ending so much. It's so hopeful and romantic and uplifting that I was willing to accept that even her cousin's, who is truly much weaker than she, hatred couldn't deter her from the goal of finding Amiel. 

I suppose I just see the whole book as being uplifting. I see it as a struggle for a girl to find her own identity, who is forced to find it faster than most because of what happens, and in the end she knows exactly who she is, what she wants and how she's going to get it. Pearl is much more than just a girl of divorced parents, much more than a poor girl et cetera, and while Amiel helped her on this road in the end she did this alone and I can take comfort in that. To me she is more alone than lonely and alone isn't all that bad. I don't think she was lonely just a little bit lost and I could/can/will identify with that.  All the people are experiencing  something that so real that at times it's painful. 

 I totally remember those times in my life when I felt like I was changing, and the world around me was staying the same...I think that's one of the many steps towards maturity. I also lived in my head a lot, um, er, still do and could be that extroverted cheerleader, but was also the person who thought about everything too much. I had to learn to balance those two me's a little better and in the process I grew up and realized that it's OK to be quiet sometimes and sometimes it's OK to yell. I think that Pearl is that the beginning of that journey.

Finally, this discussion has reminded me of this poem:

Song by Adrienne Rich http://southerncrossreview.org/41/ric...

We're all just diamonds and wood after all. 

The List 

Although I was a black girl in a pretty much all white school, I mean I was the first African-American to graduate from Lebanon High School and that was 1994 (you can read more about that here). Aside from my early years of school, I wasn't really teased. And in high school I wasn't blacklisted or whatever it is teens do to other teens. I do remember being in a clique that would rival that one in Mean Girls and reading this book reminded me so much of those, what I thought were harmless, lists of pretty girls and boys. I never thought about what it meant to be on those lists or to write those lists or to even see those lists floating around.

Popularity contest are not cool.

I love how this book shows this, but doesn't really tie up any of the loose ends...the ending is neither happy nor sad. Everyone learns lessons and everyone suffers. How could you win when the list is so horrible and intrinsic to the very backbone of the school. Vivian really has shown us every example of the teenage boy and girl. I'm pretty sure every adult will see him or herself in the characters and be glad that time is over. I hope teenagers read this book (yes, I bought it for my classroom in hard-cover) and see themselves and use it as a tool to change.

Mare's War 

This book was first introduced to me during our Missouri Reading Initiative meetings. Our presenter Kae read a couple of really great descriptive passages from the book and then we used them as writing assignments. Those passages really made me want to read the book.

This book is quite lovely as it encompasses historical fiction, Mare is a African-American girl fighting in WWII, strong females, and it shows how African-Americans were discriminated against even in the face of war. The book is told alternately through flashbacks in Mare's voice and in the voice of Mare's youngest grand-daughter. It's important to appreciate your heritage and to not take for granted any member of your family.

Let It Snow

Super cute stories centered around a small town and the teenagers who get snowed in on Christmas and Christmas Eve. There are three stories that interweave the characters and each story is written by a prominent YA author.

The Jubilee Express by Maureen Johnson
I love this story. I enjoy a good meet cute. Stuart sounds just too perfect. I could go on, but I'd just feel like some sort of moron. Is it wrong that I want to collect little Christmas themed knick-knacks one day...with a train running through the whole town? I don't think so.

A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle by John Green
This story is kind of like Road Trip meets Pineapple Express meets Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. I loved. I rooted for the good guy. I wanted there to be cheerleaders. I wished I had a cool nickname like The Duke.

The Patron Saint of Pigs by Lauren Myracle
I'd been reading about how this one wasn't as good as the other two. At first I totally agreed the main character is a whiny, selfish girl who doesn't really deserve to have friends let alone a boyfriend. Despite my dislike of her I really thought she acted like many of the teen girls I see today and in the end she learns some really valuable lessons from her guardian angel and the only entirely tea-cup pig thing was adorable.

55 Books in a Year: Book #52, #54, #55 The Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy

So, I've got 12 books to review in, um, 3 days...so I'll be chunking them up. If you want to see full reviews of the young adult books check out Teen Text Talk...for the others, well that's all she wrote.

For this post, I'll be doing the three 50 Shades books...

I find that when I'm overly stressed out and busy I read books that entertain, but do not challenge...enter this trilogy. I'm not going to lie I found these books fun and entertaining and a bit more like Twilight than I thought they would be, even though I knew they were fanfiction. I also didn't really find them all that dirty (not really sure what that says about me...), but I've read loads of romance novels and you can only talk about having sex so much before it becomes bland, and, frankly, I found the sex scenes so similar that after the first book I breezed through the sex to read the story. And, just as I did with the Twilight Saga (everytime I call it the Twilight Saga I cannot help, but chortle...saga, really?), I really liked the first book and eventually got bored with the story and with the love story and just wanted some action...real action by the end.

Fifty Shades of Grey
Story line
From Goodreads:
When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.
 
Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.
Plusses

• Christian Grey...I really tried not to like him as I felt he would be an affront to the virtues of men and women everywhere, but alas he had his good qualities.
• Ana seems to be a bit more powerful in this book than the other two.
• There were some laugh out loud moments...hmm...I hope they were meant to be funny, at least they were to me.

Minuses

• the phrase 'inner Goddess'...who edited these books, they should be ashamed of themselves for allowing that phrase to appear at all, let alone in the amount that it does.
• no matter what i tried, i could stop Ana from being Bella...why is that you ask? because this book is the Twilight book...you can change the location and you can muddle up the names, but still...
• the use of the word 'baby'...ugh.
• Ana...double ugh.

Fifty Shades Darker

Not that I want to admit this, but I probably found this book to be the best one. I like the story line and the locations. I don't really know if that's because I got used to the horrible writing. I feel like the first book is all about how sensational Christian and Ana are and this book actually has more dialogue, less 'baby's' and less of that friggin' inner goddess bull-crap. We also get to meet Ana's family and Christian's family and so there's less of that awful romantic conversation crap.

Story line
From Goodreads:
Daunted by the singular sexual tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house. 

But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades. 

While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her, and make the most important decision of her life.

Plusses

• I really do like Christian Grey...I loath myself.
• The setting...I've never thought of Seattle as a place I'd want to visit. I guess it's more than the 90s Grunge scene and coffee houses.
• I also like Christian's house-keeper, well, actually, I like all the people that work for him on a personal level--the office bimbos I could do without.

Minuses

• OK, so I always imagined Rochester from Jane Eyre as talking like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. About half-way through this book, I realized that Christian was taking on some of these traits...who wants to fantasize about Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.
• Oh, Bella, er, I mean Ana get over yourself...you are the worst character ever written...I still don't quite grasp what you conflict is and you make me want to punch you in the kidney.
• Christian is a bit, ok more than a bit of a STALKER, and, since when is this an attractive quality in a man.

Fifty Shades Freed
I don't know why this book exist...the first 100 pages are so dull.
Not that I know a lot about S&M and I had to Google often to understand what was going on, but I really don't like the story arc of the lady (I don't the flip remember her name) who 'helped' Christian and then turned psycho and I don't like the treatment of the all the reasons Christian is the way he is. Why can't he just like doing it because he likes to? And, I really thought that woman would become a friend, not a jealous old lady with nothing except her money and boy toys.

Story line
From Goodreads:
Now, Ana and Christian have it all—love, passion, intimacy, wealth, and a world of possibilities for their future. But Ana knows that loving her Fifty Shades will not be easy, and that being together will pose challenges that neither of them would anticipate. Ana must somehow learn to share Christian’s opulent lifestyle without sacrificing her own identity. And Christian must overcome his compulsion to control as he wrestles with the demons of a tormented past.

Plusses:

• Um...er...there's that house that sounds just amazing.

Minuses:

• What the heck was that honeymoon about???
• What the heck was that ending about???
• Ana is the most static character ever!
• And, I am done with the Britishisms...why are people from America living in Seattle talking like they live in the West End!!!???

OK, so for all my dislike of what these books have done to mainstream America, I couldn't help, but read them and like them and like talking about them. The characters aren't roll models, the sex is pretty much used to propel the plot, but, if you told me you were going to read them I wouldn't stop you.

And, I'd want to dish about it.

55 Books in a Year: Book #50 The Night Circus

I started this book last Fall...yes, last Fall. And, if my status updates are any indication this book was gosh darned slow to start. Slow as H-E-C-K!

Reading Progress

09/09	page 280		73.0%	"I suppose you get to a point where this book moves fast enough."
09/09	page 181		47.0%	"'Second verse same as the first.' I feel like I should wear more black, white and red. I have students who will love this book."
09/08	page 121		31.0%	"if I may be quite honest I started this like, um, last fall and got to page 31 and then stopped...wow, it was so boring and then I put it on a reading challenge and must have it read by the end of the month...the beauty of the language keeps me going. not really sure why it can't be told in sequential order. books that go out of time without a reason make me want to punch puppies."

This book was probably at a "2" until about half way, and, then, frankly, by the end it was a delicious and solid "5"...hence, the "4". It's one of those books where you can tell the author loves the world that has been created and this is the first book that I've ever read where the world that has been created is so magical and beautiful (like made for a movie that I'm sure is going to be created soon) that it distracts from the plot and from the characters. I couldn't tell if I wanted the two main characters to get together in the end and I wasn't sorry when any characters died...I didn't get to know them that well, I loved the ending so much I forgot about the beginning. And, gah, any character development happened in relation to that darned circus. It takes about 100 pages to go anywhere and that's a lot of darned circus talk.  Although I just didn't love all that rising action in the beginning, I do love me some circus action. And, really, who doesn't love a circus?

Yeah, that darned circus with it's beautiful maze and wishing tree and bonfire and delicious cider. Uh, uh, that circus with its contortionist and fortune teller and wide-eyed red-headed, mystical twins. Of course, there's a love triangle, of sorts and an aged old magicians bet. I wish I could have seen more of that...the bet, the mysterious characters, the love story. Read this and you'll want to grab your black and white dress or tux, throw on your red scarf and find some wonderful place to skulk about at night hoping for your dreams to come true, just don't plan on finding any characters to fall in love with on your journey, well, that is until the circus is about ready to close.

55 Books in a Year: Book #49 The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight

OK, so we've already established that I love romance and schmoopiness and chick-lit...I'd like to share with you one more very important point.

I am an over-the-top, dorkopatamus, hopeless Romantic. This book by Jennifer E. Smith, The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight, totally encapsulates this sentiment.

I could gush on and on about the cover alone with it's perfect hand-writing font and it's adorable drawn-on heart doodle and the black and the white and the red and the airport PDA, but I'd much rather talk about Oliver and Hadley and my favorite place in the world, London, and, you know, my romantic view of airports and my teenage girl dream of meeting a lovely British boy on a plane.

I believe that airports and airplanes are two of the most romantic places in the world. They are brimming over with possibilities and full of stories...hearts being broken and courted and hopes being crushed and dreams being answered. And, I cannot count the amount of times I have sat in my seat hoping that someone would sit next to me and this someone would change my whole life. Of course, that's not how it went at all...but, I still have that dream in my soul. Passionate airport kisses and over-whelming desires to have them were just an added bonus to this dream.

Smith writes her characters in such a way that I totally believe that a girl could meet and fall for a guy in 8 hours. I totally believe that said guy would not feel totally weird about meeting said girl at an awkward time, and would put himself on the line just as much as she would to make sure that they saw one another again.

To add to the layers, Hadley's going to England to be in her father's wedding to a woman she has never met and doesn't want to meet. As Hadley gets to know Oliver more, we, in turn, begin to understand that she isn't very different from her father. And, we begin to understand that there are different types of love and not all of them end in happily ever after. We begin to understand that we have to be true to ourselves and accept the consequences of our actions.

I believe in love at first sight and, I love thinking about the idea that all of this happens because Hadley was running four minutes late. Because what would love at first sight be without fate playing the biggest role of all.

55 Books in a Year: Book #46 On the Island

The following is full of spoilers...I thought I'd tell you just in case you were totally expecting the unexpected you will not find it in this book. Surely, I'm not giving ANYTHING away here. Does that cover look like the kind of book that would kill off its characters in the end?

Great Summer read...glad I wasn't reading it on a plane...wish I could have read it on a beach!

OK, maybe not a beach exactly...

I think I may be a romantic of the sappy variety.

Here are some of the signs:

1. I can watch the Lifetime channel all. day. long.
2. I like my 'Happily Ever Afters'.
3. I like the Hallmark Channel
4. I prefer Sandra Bullock to be in movies where she lives in Chicago and likes men who 'lean'
5. The shows that I love the most are shows that have a hard-core 'shipper' factor...The X-Files, Bones, Castle, sure these seem like murder mystery alien shows, but that's all a guise for the sexual tension.
6. I like sexual tension.
7. I love chick-lit. I don't think chick-lit is a derogatory word. I like my chick-lit in various forms and sizes.
8. When I grow up I want to be Bridget Jones.
9. My reading list this year has so many pinky, reddish, schmoopie colors it almost makes me embarrassed. Almost.

This book, On the Island, should be a sign unto itself. 30 year old woman meets 16, almost 17, year old boy recovering cancer patient. She's his tutor. They crash on an island. He matures. She *cough* matures. They um, well, you know it is an island and they are stranded there together for a long time.

And, the thing is nothing about the above story is creepy, at least Tracey Garvis Graves goes out of her way to make sure that we understand enough about their relationship that we don't find it creepy and she gives us just enough about the two characters that we do buy that he grows into a man and she grows to love him. TJ is probably more ideal than a lot of main male characters out there and he isn't just a puppy following Anna around until she decides to love him. They both learn to accept each other and they learn that they can survive no matter what. I mean there's this scene with a shark that's just wow.

I like that the climax is that they get off the island 3 1/2 years after crash landing and about 2 1/2 days (only slight exaggeration) after they decide to have a relationship. They have to learn to love each other in the real world. Each of them have to decide if the love is real. And, I love that TJ gets it first.

Anyway, every single part of this book is predictable and I loved every single minute of it. I really kinda a lot want to read it again...especially the last 40 pages or so *hubba, hubba*.

It's like Robinson Crusoe meets The Blue Lagoon...yeah, I just did that.

55 Books in a Year: Book #18 Bet Me

It took me a minute to realize that Bet Me is a romance novel for fat people. And, no I don't think fat is an offensive word. IT is just a word, like any other word. This book just happens to be for people above a size 8.

And...I'm not in the "thin people" category.

It did take me a few chapters to get over the blatant way the novel panders (yes, panders) to the not so thin (I guess there's a whole genre of books like this, and this is not the place for me to get on that soapbox)...

Min's boyfriend thinks she 'overweight' and weak. Cal thinks she disarmingly curvy and Cal is hot...and, not regular Soap Opera hot, more like George Clooney hot. Crusie goes out her way to focus on Min's cute haircut, "short loose curls" thick and silky", her lovely toes and great taste in shoes, "'Nice shoes,' he said, and she looked down at her frosted-plastic open-toed heels tied with floppy black bows." (and, those are shoes with cherries for straps on the cover not spoons and cherries...just in case you, like a certain someone else, *cough, cough* thought otherwise). Everyone picks on Min for being overweight this includes her thin, bitchy, younger sister and her even thinner "I haven't eaten real food since the 60s" mother. Both of which would hate it if Min ruined the former's wedding by being too big for her dress.

And, here's what Cal says to it all:

"The reason you can't lose weight is that you're not supposed to lose weight, you're not built that way, and if you did manage through some stupid diet to take the weight off, you'd be like that chicken mess you just made. Some things are supposed to be made with butter. You're one of them." He goes on to say, "You want to be sexy, be sexy. You have assets that skinny women will never have, and you should be enjoying them and dressing like you enjoy them. Or at least dressing so that others can enjoy them. ...You're the kind of woman who looks better naked than dressed. I'm assuming..."

No guys is ever going to talk that way. And, if you've found one, I'd like to meet him just to make sure he's real.

But, once I got over that. Once I turned off my analyzing brain and remembered I was reading a romance novel, everything about this book became marvelous.

First, there are about 20 pairs of shoes that I want to see in person (and, I'm not a shoe person), nothing bad happens, but all the nay-sayers kind of get theirs kind of like in "The Wedding Date", Cal looks like George Clooney circa "One Fine Day", Min loves food and there's this scene with a cupcake that felt like porn, food porn, there's lots and lots Chicken Marsala..and, there's Elvis...Presley. Sigh.

Actually, when I got finished reading this book I, and my curvy, self felt pretty swell.

This is also the first book I read for my Why Buy The Cow? book challenge, as it was free on the Nook for a time, sadly it is not free now.

Here's an adorably cute and spot on review of this book. Love it!

55 Books in a Year: Book #17 Anna and the French Kiss

When I was younger my life's goal was to go to/live in London, England.

This goal was so prominent in my mind that during my Home-Ec class when other girls were making those big wedding plans (a project I'm soooooo glad has been deemed sexist and inappropriate) I planned my trip to London--no, really, I told my teacher I wasn't planning on getting married and that if I did I would do so in Vegas. She told me I should plan my honeymoon instead and my trip (not honeymoon) was a go.

My friends used to help me dream about my life in England.

I'd meet a boy named Nigel "Something"(I don't remember his last name)worth the Third and he'd be handsome and rich and have lovely gardens we'd stroll around. I'd meet the Queen (or is it The Queen?) and she'd be so taken with how polite I was that I'd be offered a job and a place in the palace. I'd own a dog. I'd go to pubs. I'd become an archaeologist and figure out what happened to those boys in the Tower. I'd eat lots of fish and chips. I wish I would have kept all the papers on which we doodled my life plan.

And, then it happened. Everything worked out so I could go to London, England...not just a week or a month, but a whole semester...sigh.

I became a part of the Missouri London Program.

I became an exchange student.

It was awesome.

I'd forgotten how much so until I read Anna and the French Kiss, a wonderfully written, light, but in no way breezy, young adult novel by Stephanie Perkins.

This book would just be another typical teen fish out of water tale if it wasn't for the amazing dialogue. I fell in love with Anna the first moment she was introduced. Actually, Perkins has quite a lovely grasp on dialogue and characters and I fell in love with and related to them all. Each character exhibited traits of people I know and cherish. There's the boy who everyone knows is in the wrong relationship, but he doesn't have the backbone to end it. There's the girl who has had a major crush on said boy, but understands that she is not the one. There's the jealous, over-the-top girlfriend. The boy, who is this case happens to be named Etienne (sigh), has his own wonderful set of quirky guy friends. And, there's all the romance of being in a foreign country sans adults. Something about the way these seniors acting seemed totally believable. This may be the first time I've read a book where a girl or two cries alone or accidentally in front of someone and I didn't want to bash my head, or hers, into a brick wall. I even had some of the same culture shock moments ("What the world I left went on without me while I was having a life overseas?"). This book was soooo good that I couldn't put it down and had to finish it, while my friends waited, sitting on a bed in a lovely Los Angeles hotel an amazing view of the Hollywood sign behind me.

The only thing that would have made this book better is if it would have been set in London, no really, I mean that...maybe Stephanie Perkins will do that someday.

So study abroad. If you're lucky you'll meet people half as cool as these people and you'll have wonderful adventures with or without all the romance. If you can't study abroad right away at least read this book and remember your first love, your first time away from home and live overseas vicariously through them.

Reading this book made me get out the 'ole scrapbooks. Memory lane never felt so good.

55 Books in a Year: Book #16 The Lucky One

A Nick Sparks book I like, what!?

Reading Mindy Kaling's book really put me in a mood...a girly paint my toenails pink, squeal and watch sappy movies kind of mood. The next three books I'm going to review are so romance filled and gooshy that I just might explode thinking about them.

I'd be embarrassed to write about these books...if Mindy Kaling hadn't confessed that she "simply regard[s] romantic comedies as a subgenre of sci-fi, in which the world created therein has different rules than my regular human world. Then I just lap it up." According to New York magazine, "Kaling's goal is to write the classic romantic comdey for her generation, where women are as into the NBA and true crime as they are into searching for love or the perfect pair of shoes." I'd watch that.

But, back to this lovely book (and, hopefully, lovely movie *fingers crossed* haven't seen it yet!) by Nick Sparks.

OK, so I don't really like Nick Sparks and his books (you can read all about in my review of One Day), really I don't. There's weeping and death and some more death for the sake of weeping--ick.

And, then there's this book.

Sure, it has death. Don't want to give anything away, but, the initial reason it all happens has to do with a death, and then there's some more death and then there's a big death at the end.

But, I don't mind in this case.

Because there's all this schmoopiness. There's a life-saving heroic dog and a 'meet cute' involving a kennel and lack of AC. There's an adorable little son and a eccentric grandmother. And, then there's Zac Efron. I mean sure he's not in the book, per se, but it's really easy to imagine him as Logan--yowza.

In the desert of Iraq, Logan finds this picture of a girl standing by a summer fair carousel. His best friend tells him that he's 'the lucky one' and it is this picture that saves him countless times. Logan begins to believe him, and, after one tragic event, walks across the country using only the picture of the girl as his guide to find her.

Of course, there he meets some difficulties. There's the controlling douche-bag ex-husband and Elizabeth's fear of commitment. And, there's the fact that for some reason, Logan doesn't want to tell her how he came to find her.

Seriously, I love this book.

If you are looking for a sugary sweet, yet, realistic tale of fate and destiny and love. This is the book for you. And, it was just the right book to read while waiting for the plane to land in Las Vegas so I could begin my Spring Break.

Wait, I have some more confessions...
I like The Twilight Saga...I don't think it's real, but I do think it's fun and I know the words to about 99% of all Britney Spears songs.

Whew! I feel lighter!

55 Books in a Year: Book #8 The Fox

The only DH Lawrence I ever read before tackling this book was "The Rocking-horse Winner", an odd little story about love that borders on the Oedipal and luck that borders on insanity. While I could write a paper about it, I'm still not sure I get it. When I tell people that they just say, "That's Lawrence for you."


When I started The Fox I had "The Rocking-horse Winner" in mind, however, I wasn't really ready for the whole story and these plot synopses gave no indication as to what I was getting into.


Here's the breakdown from Wikipedia:

The Fox is a novella by D. H. Lawrence published in 1923. Set in Berkshire, England during World War I, The Fox, like many of D. H. Lawrence’s other major works, treats the psychological relationships of three protagonists in a triangle of love and hatred. Without the help of any male laborers, Nellie March and Jill Banford struggle to maintain a marginal livelihood at the Bailey Farm. A fox has raged through the poultry, and although the women—particularly the more masculine Nellie—have tried to shoot the intruder, he seems always to elude traps or gunshot.

and Goodreads:

The Fox (1923) is a short novella by D.H. Lawrence that is set in the Berkshire district of England in 1918, just after the First World War. Two women, Branford and March, both in their thirties and unmarried, live together on an isolated farm. One day, like a fox, a man enters their farm and lives. Lawrence uses the fox as a symbol of masculinity and through it explores male sexuality.

The Fox is down right sexy. I hear from those of you that know Lawrence that in his misogyny he can be pretty sexual. I read about March and Banford and thought, "Well, are they? Aren't they? Will they?" I was drawn to March and her battle with the fox in the hen house. And, then I was drawn to the fox, in the form of Henry, in the hen house. Every description left him more attractive than the next. Every description of March, though his eyes, makes her more beautiful and, dare I say, more feminine. The more the narrator refers to her trousers and her eyes and her neck and her boots and her legs in a dress, the more Banford shrinks and became a tiny, shriveled screw. The more the reader sees March as sexy too. Even the barren farm with its chickens and lack of cow seems inviting and sensual.


And, the whole entire triangle is reminiscent of the triangle in Ethan Frome and I can't decide which character I feel more sympathy towards. Heck, I can't tell if the women are supposed to be lovers supplanted by the boy, I can't tell if things had ended differently if March would have felt differently, I can't tell if March loves the boy, I can't tell if the boy really loves March and while there isn't out and out sex, there's this neck kiss that left me a little breathless and there's this confrontation between Banford, March and Henry that was just one step shy of a full sex encounter, although no one took off their clothes and everyone was very angry. In the end I can't tell if Henry is still the fox or if March is still the strong one. I can't tell if this book is pro love, or anti-feminist.


But, hey, that's Lawrence for you.


4 Stars   

I was entranced by this book and the story and Lawrence's writing style, but when it ended and I caught my breath I felt a little let-down, I'm not really sure by what.


You can read the whole novella here.


Read the novella and feeling frustrated? Check out these lovely reviews.
The Reading Life
Tony Crisp

55 Books in a Year: Book #1 Bittersweet

For the record I have a major girl crush on Sarah Ockler...no, really, not only is she singing to my soul of yesteryear, she is singing to my soul right now...and, except for her strange like of zombies, I'm pretty sure we're kindred spirits (thank-you very much Anne of Green Gables). In this book it's all about the cupcakes and those of you that know me know how much I love, love, love cupcakes. Ockler has given me about 20 more recipes to try, I'm so excited! OK, enough with the gushing...

Hudson's parents will divorce and she sees it as kind of her fault. She is, after all, the one who found the cheetah bra. It's the night of her biggest ice skating competition and she blows it thinking about her parents, her little brother and the life they will no longer share.

This is how Bittersweet, Sarah Ockler's third novel, opens.

While this book is a little heavy handed with The Scarlet Letter references and a little Mighty Ducks meets The Cutting Edge, it makes up for it with its take on friendships, relationships and cupcakes.

Sarah Ockler can write a kick butt teen romance. Josh and Will are both perfect dream boats. They are both so fleshed out that it's hard to determine which one will win in the end. The bad one ends up learning a lesson and repenting and the good one is kind of a turd for a minute. And, this book has just enough flirtation, and smooching scenes to make it incredibly interesting. There's also a great 'meet cute' scene on the ice and a scary rescue scene on the ice further in the book.

I preach, to anyone who will listen, about the effects of divorce. I also preach about the effects of staying in a relationship when you should divorce. I talk about how your kids notice more than you think and I talk about how you are, not only hurting yourself, but those around you. Hudson has learned some pretty crappy behaviors from her divorced parents and she exhibits these behaviors throughout the book. Hudson thinks of her friends and family, only after she thinks of herself. When feeling down about the impending divorce she kisses the boy she knows her best friend likes. She talks about how she knew it was wrong, she talks about how she needed to tell her friend the truth. Years later she alienates her second best friend by not telling her the whole truth. She buries herself in her work (the making of exquisite cupcakes--and there are some amazing ones that I'm definitely going to have to try) and in a flirtation with the hockey captain, although she is warned not to and although she truly has feelings for someone else.

I dislike Hudson's shallow, irresponsible father. He smashes everything while doing anything to please himself. He is so far removed from the picture that he doesn't even comment or recognize that he hurts his daughter every time he sends a thoughtless email or post an even shallower blog post. He reminds me so much of my father, that he doesn't even deserve the few lines I have given him.

I really dislike Hudson's mother. I know that my single mother went out of her way and humbled herself to make sure that the three of us wanted for nothing and to make sure that the three of us lived normal teenager lives. When I was in high school I had to work to have money for things like cheerleading and club dues. I had to fundraise to get money for summer camps. I know that without the help of my aunt I would have still fallen short. However, my mother did not demand that I work and she did not demand that any of us girls become the other parent. I know that Hudson's mother wants the diner to succeed. I know that Hudson's mother wants Bug (Hudson's little brother) to have a great Christmas and not be burdened, he is, after all, only 8. In doing this she has created a tough as nails daughter who remains silent when she should speak. I cannot imagine how hard divorce must be on a parent, but I do know that you don't make your teenage children carry more weight than they can bear and you don't have your teenage daughter sacrifice her dreams so you can live yours. I know that, in the end, Hudson and her mother come to some sort of agreement, but I'm not sure that it is enough...I'm not sure that Hudson's mother understands what kind of daughter she has had a hand in creating and I'm not sure that she has done enough to help undo the damage.

I am glad that Hudson finds her true passion. I am glad that she finally figures out how to begin the conversation with her mother, her brother and her best friends; past and present. I am glad that she gets the guy. It is wonderful that this book really doesn't end picture perfectly. That's life after all and we must learn to live it thorns and all.

I enjoy a good teen romance, so I enjoyed this book. If you don't get any of the hockey, ice references (like me) you can always fall back on the cupcakes.

4 Stars   

50 Books in a Year: Book #59 Ten Things We Did (And, Probably Shouldn't Have)

I don't know how long this will last, but you can buy this for your eReader for 99 cents...

Anyway, I bought 10 Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) while waiting in the car for my mother to get finished with her shopping in BN. We were taking turns because the kiddo was asleep in the back seat; in her defense it was naptime. In our defense, one time we took her out when she wasn't fully awake yet...doing that with a baby (easy), doing that with a 12-month old (with a stroller=easy), doing that with a two-year old (stroller or not...hard as H-E-double hockey sticks!).

So, I waited, coffee in hand and surfed through the BN deals on my new Nook Tablet (Merry Christmas to me, from Christopher=husbands can be so sweet)...I ended up buying 4 YA novels each for less than a buck, one of which was this book; a book I wanted to read, but wasn't really in the mood to pay $10 for, a book I would have borrowed from a student, only I saw no student with it...

Anyway, I would have started it then and there, but the tiny person woke up and we went into the store to look at books and wait...

I started it yesterday morning and with all that was going on yesterday (2nd family, or was it 3rd?, family Christmas) I finished it yesterday evening.

Sadly, because I teach high school, I believed every word. I believed that lots of really nice girls who make good grades drink and party (I've had said nice girls in class and some of the stories I've overheard make me never want to have a teenage daughter), I also believe that teens no longer see sex as a stigma (it isn't only party girls that have sex)...I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but it is, I believe that teens understand the proper use of birth control, but not how they can still contract an STD and I believe that parents busy with living their second lives (ie. life after a divorce) don't notice the teen in the room who is screaming for them to lay down some rules and laws.

I like to think of these kinds of books, these modern day YA novels that have a teen girl protagonist, as lessons for me in how to raise a teenage girl...10 lessons I learned from this book:

1] Holy WOW! teach your kids about sex. I'll be teaching my daughter that she shouldn't have sex until she's older and mature and, hopefully, married, but I will also teach her about sex and STDs et cetera, if I don't she will learn from her friends, her teachers and life...and, I will look ill-prepared and naive.

2] I will not overshare my sex life with my teenage daughter (ick!) that's why parents have friends...

3] I will talk to my daughter like she is a person, I will ask her to tell me when she thinks she is ready to have sex, so we can talk...I will do this when she is 12, although in my head that seems a little young.

4] She will know she is loved, I will tell her often. She will know she is loved even if she does things that I do not like.

5] I will never take a job that requires me to leave her without adult supervision...even if that means I put my dreams on the back burner.

6] I will not move her away from her high school and her friends, even if that means I have to turn down a job (I have always firmly believed this!), however, if for some strange reason we have to move...she, kicking and screaming and pouting and moping, is coming with us.

7] I will trust my kid, but will actually meet parents face to face. I will not trust text, emails, running showers...

8] I will not impose year long punishments.

9] I will never get rid of my daughter's pet, even if we move overseas and said pet has to be in quarantine for 6 months.

10] I will give my daughter an allowance and have her tally up how she spent said allowance at the end of every month...what a good way to learn to budget, something I never learned...

OK, so I loved this book cussing, drinking, sex and all and heck, I'd let my daughter read it. I know I would have read it when I was a 9th grader...I read Forever by Judy Blume at that age.

If you've read this book what lessons did you learn? At what age do you think it's appropriate for kids to read?

50 Books in a Year: Book #45 Love Story

You know a book is good when you know the ending and when you get there you still cry like your favorite person in the world just died anyway.

You know a book is good when you've grown up hearing about it, you know a movie exist about it, you know the soundtrack and the characters and the ending and it can still make you cry.

That's how I feel about Love Story by Erich Segal.

I love this book.

I even went into the book trying not to love it. I mean what girl doesn't love Love Story? I didn't want to be one of those girls. I didn't expect to like the characters so much. Ollie sounds like a great guy, a little young and, because of this, irrational, but loving and earnest. Jenny sounds like the most perfect girl. I'm sure that she and I could have been friends. I love her parents and his parents and they're friends.

The words are so sparing.

And, the plot so fast-paced.

He meets her, they move in together, she is the perfect wife, she get leukemia and dies. I'm not giving anything away here, the book opens with Ollie talking about her death, and well if you didn't know she died, you've lived in a dark cave for the last 30-plus years.

Along the way, Ollie gets into a huge fight with his father, Ollie and Jennifer get into a huge fight and we learn that "Love means never having to say your sorry." Until I read this book, I thought line was the dumbest line in a book ever. I thought that love always meant having to say your sorry, that good-hearted people don't mind apologizing...hmmm...I also thought the ending of this book would not get to me. I did not think that I would be sniffling on the corner of the couch.

I still haven't seen the movie, I doubt I could like it more than the book.


"What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. The Beatles. And me."

Yeah, that's the opener, but I promise you'll want to read on.

50 Books in a Year: Book #40 Wither

I wasn't going to read Wither, as the cover makes me want to...I don't know punch puppies, drown kittens, vomit uncontrollably? Can you tell I hate these new-fangled covers that have some sort of waif model on the cover posed in some sort of Tyra Banks type manner? And, yet, against my will, I am drawn to its colors and symbolism...

Anyway, I wasn't going to read it and then I saw this review for it on Goodreads (by a reviewer whose opinion I value and whose reviews I follow) just trash the dickens right out of it. It made me curious. Isn't it funny how a bad review can do that? But, I still wasn't going to pay to read it...I waited...hoping one of my students would have it and let me borrow it, hoping one of my friends would buy it and let me borrow it and then there it was on the bookshelf at my aunts house when we went to visit her in the summer begging me to read it. I read it in a day, it's not really that hard of a read.

Frankly, I like the story. The only thing that makes it dystopic, however, is the premise. The rest is mostly a love quadrangle.

Frankly, I like the setting. It happens to be a gothic castle full of mysterious secrets and an orange grove in its meandering garden and, by contrast, a city taken over by disease-riddled, I can only imagine, zombie-like teens and pre-teens and those who prey upon them.

Frankly, I like the main characters. Rhine (isn't that a lovely name that you know 85 million teenage girls will now want to name their first born?) is strong when she needs to be, feminine when she needs to be and knows what she wants which is out of her life of sister-wifedom and back with her brother defending their home. I like her husband, a man/boy struggling not to be the pawn of his father, and the boy she truly loves (at least I think she does), the servant, Gabriel. I, even, like the other two sister-wives, even if one is a little spoiled child who enjoys that she is pregnant at 13 and the other is a bit sad (we find out for good reason) and mopey.

I've recommended it to a couple of students who I know like their dystopia on the light, romantic side and I've mentioned it in passing to a couple of my SF YA friends in the hopes that we could then chat about the many reasons this book and its author bugs me because I can't put my finger on it, except to say maybe there's too much to try to entice the reader to buy into the concept and not enough once your hooked. It's kind of like Taken (that movie with Liam Neeson), meets the Uglies series, meets Frankenstein (the book and the Kenneth Branagh movie), meets I Am Legend, meets the most beautiful sweeping romance ever...say Gone with the Wind.

Will I read the second one? I'm not sure, it's got another one of those covers and a setting that seems to be all the rage now...the carnival/circus. Maybe, I'll just have to keep my eyes on the look-out to see if anyone will let me borrow it.

3 Stars

Side note: my review for this book bounces between 3 and 4...I'm torn...

50 Books in a Year: Book #39 Sunday at Tiffany's

OK, so I know I've talked about romance novels enough that you may think that I don't like them. That's not entirely true. I believe a romance novel has a time and a place. I am also willing to read or watch anything romance-y if I am in the mood and I understand that there are different types of romance novels and I understand what a good book in each genre is...even more importantly I understand when I love a book that really isn't the best of its genre. Case in point:  Sunday at Tiffany's by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet...I might premise the rest of this by saying that I am also the girl who will watch most Hallmark movies, getting misty-eyed (and sometimes crying) at the appropriate places...I am, in short, a sap...a sap for a good story (who cares what the package looks like).

Sunday at Tiffany's is a book whose premise is a little thin...really, what if your imaginary friend comes to life at an appropriate age and, although you aren't supposed to, you remember him and he's hot, although when you were like seven you thought of him as more of a father, and you love him, and he helps you become the strong woman that you should've always been to begin with, he helps connect you to your mother and dump your trashy boyfriend, and, while he helps you he becomes more human...which may or may not be a good thing. I love the premise. I love the romance. I love the ease of reading of this book (I'm pretty sure I read it in an hour...while watching the kiddo and the television). I am glad it's a movie that I can buy on DVD if I desire. It will look wonderful sitting next to "Tully", "Enchanted" and "The Notebook".

I'm glad that there are books like this is the world, books that I can go back to and read when feeling down to feel better, to feel happier...to sigh with the knowledge that schmoopy romance can exist. Books don't need to be perfectly written or deeply plotted to be uplifting, sometimes lighter really does mean better.

One thing I don't get...how is this book written by two people?

50 Books in a Year: Book #11 The Apothecary's Daughter

          When I was in junior high I read my fair share of tawdry romance novels. I blush (out of embarrassment, as well as rememberance) just thinking about the list of titles: Windmills of the Gods, Bloodline, Fine Things, Now and Forever, to name a few, Silouette and Harlequin Romances (too many to name or remember) and old gems like Forever Amber. I'd read these books at school, a group of us girls taking turns with them stuffing them in our lockers underneath our Cosmo magazines so our moms wouldn't find out about either. We'd wait in the halls or find one another at lunch and whisper about the dirty passages. I learned some of my best vocab words from these books.
          I'd like to say that I've grown up, but really, I haven't. On Fridays Christopher Lee watches the tiny tot while I go hang out and last Friday my friends and I were at the local bookstore Lebanon Books (I hadn't been since they moved across town and wanted to see the new digs), it was raining and we had an hour to kill before our movie started. We fannied about the various aisles...New Releases, Cookbooks, Classics, and ended up at the Romance section. We had to have spent at least 20 minutes there, reading the silly covers and looking for the dirty sections, which we read aloud at barely a whisper and then laughed like 7th graders. It was...well, it was hilarious, especially now that so many romances novels are about vampires and werewolves as well as pirates, prison inmates and vikings.
          You see, I'm a firm believer that romance novels aren't meant to be bought, they're meant to be laughed at in bookstores or borrowed and stuffed in lockers only to come out during lunch or study hall in junior high. So, imagine my complete and utter disappointment when, for our annual Christmas book exchange at school, I received not only a romance, but a Christian one (no dirty scenes) at that.
          It's called The Silent Governess and, frankly, I have no idea what it is about because it's been on loan to so many sophomore girls since one of them spotted it on my desk in early January that I barely remember the cover. And, everytime one brings it back she gushes about how marvelous it is and another ask to borrow it. This whole entire phenomenon has me intrigued. My curiousity was piqued even more when my cousin mentioned another book by this author, called The Apothecary's Daughter, that she downloaded for free on her Kindle. I posted about it on FB and sure enough there were more people who liked The Silent Governess and The Apothecary's Daughter, some of them even claimed that knowing me, they thought I would like them too. The Silent Governess is still on loan, but I now have The Apothecary's Daughter on my Nook...a free download.
           And, well, it's pretty good so far--really. The main character is strong-willed and determined to do what she wants, the plot is not determined by the sex scenes in the midst of it, it's set in London and other parts of England, it's a little suspenseful as Lilly is pretending her father isn't sick so she can be an apothecary and her mother just disappeared one day. It isn't quiet the clear cut read I assumed it would be. Maybe, just maybe, Julie Klassen, I'll read The Silent Governess after all, that is as soon as I finish this one!