Books In, Books Out

On Sunday I finished New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. I liked it a lot until about 3/4 of the way through and I liked the ending but I don't like the intense vampire battle stuff. :-) Not my thing. I like the relationships aspect of these books more than the vampire stuff. I already put the next book on hold at the library though. 4/5

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks - I wanted to like this - it looked fascinating and interesting. I just couldn't concentrate or something though so I put it down. Maybe at a later date....

Busters Diaries: a true story of a dog and his man as told to Roy Hattersley - Didn't finish

Laughing in the Dark: A Comedian's Journey Through Depression by Chonda Pierce - Started out okay but I got bored and skimmed to the end

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig - reading this one next....

KnitLit: Sweaters and Their Stories.... by Linda Roghaar and Molly Wolf - then this one after that....

Went to the library again yesterday and got:

Things I Learned from Knitting - Whether I Wanted to or Not by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee - This is her newest book and my library didn't have it yet so I requested they purchase it, and they did! This isn't the first time they've bought a book I asked for - did I ever mention how much I LOVE the library? :-)

Sisterchicks Go Brit! by Robin Jones Gunn - I've really liked all these books except one. I don't remember why or which one but there was one I just didn't like as much as the others.

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - Yikes! This one is almost 1000 pages! I've heard so many great reviews of this book and can't wait to read it. I hope it isn't another one of my "couldn't get into it, didn't finish" books. We'll see.

I also got 4 knitting magazines to browse through. :-)

More Books

I go to the library so often and get more books before I finish the pile I have - it's making my "great idea" (ha!) of listing the books I get on each trip and then reporting on them when I'm done somewhat difficult. So I think rather than list the books I get on each visit, I'll just take a few at a time when I get a chance and give my thoughts or whatnot. I'm a horrible reviewer - I wish I had the talent that many of you have. So you'll have to settle for "I loved it" or "I hated it" or maybe a bit more occasionally.

The last 2 books I had mentioned that I hadn't read were Embrace Me by Lisa Samson and The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. I loved the first book I ever read by Lisa Samson which was The Church Ladies. After that I started to like each book by her less and less (while still enjoying each one to some degree), with the exception of Quaker Summer which I liked a lot. Embrace Me was just okay for me. 3/5

I read a few chapters of The Lace Reader and couldn't get into it, so that one goes into my ever growing "didn't finish" pile.

I just started New Moon by Stephenie Meyer this morning. I'm sure I'll like it.

Other books in my pile right now:

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Busters Diaries: a true story of a dog and his man as told to Roy Hattersley

Laughing in the Dark: A Comedian's Journey Through Depression by Chonda Pierce

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig

KnitLit: Sweaters and Their Stories.... by Linda Roghaar and Molly Wolf

Two More

I am now down to 2 books in my library pile (Embrace Me and The Lace Reader) but I'll be going to the library later today which means my pile will most definitely grow again. :-)

I am 1 for 2 with these last 2 books:

A Good and Happy Child by Justin Evans - I'm not really sure how this ended up on my TBR pile. I usually try to write next to the title where I got the book idea from (usually a blog! or from my friends on the Sonlight Bibliovores group). The blog I had next to this one wasn't the right one. Anyway, this book was too strange for me and I only read one chapter. Didn't finish

The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty - LOVED this one! After the first chapter I was thinking maybe I wouldn't like this book and about 2 paragraphs after thinking that I started getting hooked and I couldn't put it down. 5/5

Happy reading!

Four More Books

I'm finished with the next 4 books from my last library visit:

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris - I liked the first chapter and thought it was going to be good then I lost interest quickly. Didn't finish.

The Interloper by Antoine Wilson - This was a strange book, a little creepy. It was okay. 3/5

The Speed Queen by Stewart O'Nan - I liked his book The Good Wife which is the only book by this author I've read. This one is about a woman on death row - after the last book I was in the mood for something more uplifting so I didn't get past the first few pages of this. I skimmed through it though and I'm glad I didn't read it. I still want to try some more of his books.

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson - I started this last night and laughed out loud already in the first chapter. But I quickly got bogged down and didn't feel like reading it. I think this would be a great book to listen so I'm going to see if the library has an audio version. But for now I'm not going to finish this one either!

I also paged through the socks knitting book. I have enough sock patterns to last me a lifetime so I don't think I'll ever buy this one but you never know. There was one really complicated pattern with a really crazy chart to follow. It just boggled my mind!

So nothing too exciting to report today. I hope I can really get into one of the four books I have left from my last big list.

Two Done and Two More in the Pile :-)

I finished 2 books from my last library visit:

The Kid Turned Out Fine - This was a little more of what I was looking for in the book about toddlers I recently read. A few more war stories in this one. :-) 4/5
We have had to resort to duct taping our daughter's diaper on at naptime and nighttime otherwise she is taking it off every time and peeing on the floor or in her bed. It.is.maddening.

Doesn't She Look Natural? - Finally another book by Angela Hunt that I loved. Almost exactly 2 years ago I read her book The Awakening and I loved it. I then read 2 more that I liked fairly well, and since then have tried 4 or 5 other books by her that I just couldn't get into. This one ended that streak thankfully. I really enjoyed this and am looking forward to the sequel. 4.5/5

I also paged through 2 of the 3 knitting books I got on my last visit. There really wasn't anything in the book Two Balls or Less that I would want to make, but I really like Soft and Simple Knits for Little Ones. I might consider buying that book in the future.

Two of my "hold" books were in again so I picked those up a few days ago:

Embrace Me by Lisa Samson

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

Happy Reading!

I Got Nuthin

I didn't like any of the last 4 books I checked out!

Love Walked In by Marisa De Los Santos - didn't like the writing style (hope you like both of your copies though, Jane! LOL)

Fireweed by Mildred Walker - LOVED her book Winter Wheat - couldn't get into this one

A Woman in Jerusalem by A.B. Yehoshua - Didn't grab me

Matrimony by Joshua Henkin - Too strange for me or something


As you can see now that I'm doing these library visit reviews, I probably start and DON'T finish more books than I DO finish. Is anyone else like that or is it just me? I know some people can't bring themselves to put a book down once they start it - I obviously have no problem with it. :-) I figure I am probably missing out on some really great books by abandoning them so quickly, but on the other hand there are SO many books out there that I do love right from the start, (I'll never run out of great books!) it's a chance I'm willing to take. (One of my favorite books of all time, Some Wildflower in My Heart by Jamie Langston Turner, was a book I *almost* put down after about 50 pages. Good thing I stuck with it!)

So I took those 4 books back and got these:

The Kid Turned Out Fine: Moms fess up about cartoons, candy, and what it really takes to be a good mom by Paula Ford-Martin

Doesn't She Look Natural? by Angela Hunt

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

The Interloper by Antoine Wilson

The Speed Queen by Stewart O'Nan

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

A Good and Happy Child by Justin Evans

The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty

And these 3 knitting books:

Two Balls or Less by Jenny Hill

Soft and Simple Knits for Little Ones by Heidi Boyd

Socks, Socks, Socks by Elaine Rowie

I think I will just review 2 or 3 at a time as I finish them so it's not forever before I post about them.

Happy Reading!

June 4 Library Visit Review

I finished both of these.

Toddler: Real-life stories of those fickle, irrational, urgent, tiny people we love
I didn't like this one as much as I had hoped I would. I was really hoping for lots and lots of stories of people struggling with their toddlers as much as I am**. :-) 3/5

Still Alice by Lisa Genova - LOVED this book! Thanks Lynne! The book is about a 50 year old professional woman who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers Disease. Each chapter is another month in her life so you really see the progression of the disease. So sad. The book really fleshed out for me what this would be like, moreso than if I just read an article or something about the subject. I highly recommend this book - 5/5


**As I was writing this post, my 2 year old woke up from her nap. I opened the door to her bedroom to find her stark naked. She had taken off her clothes and diaper and peed on the floor (NOT for the first time, sigh). She had also taken all the clothes and pajamas out of 2 of the dresser drawers. Sometimes I wonder if this 43 year old mother will survive the toddler years. :-p

That Was Easy (June 12 Library Visit Review)

On June 12 I checked out two books that had come in off hold. Both were short loans (2 weeks instead of 4). It wasn't hard to finish them by the time they were due (6/26) because I didn't get into either of them.

The first one is The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. It wasn't bad but it just wasn't grabbing me. It was moving too slow or something. I gave it a good 100 pages but then decided I just wasn't that interested. Again here's a book I expected to like, I wanted to like, but I didn't.

The next one was The Appeal by John Grisham. I used to love his books. Maybe I've read too many, maybe he wrote too many. :-) It just didn't feel that original and didn't grab me.

So I moved on to Still Alice by Lisa Genova (recommended by Lynne) which is a fictional account of a 50 year old woman with Alzheimers. I'm really enjoying this one. It's really giving me a good insight into what it would be like to be diagnosed with this disease, especially at such a relatively young age.

I'm going to the library later this morning, can't wait! :-)

May 19 & 27 Library Visit Review

I just finished Twilight, and have one more book from these trips to read yet, but I think I will post about that one separately after I finish (or don't finish) it so I can finally post about these. I feel like I finished some of these SO long ago! Carrie you asked what I thought of Twilight - I literally finished the book, checked my email and saw your comment. My brief thoughts about it are below.

So here are my ratings of the books I checked out on May 19 and May 27, in the order I read (or didn't read) them:

The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer - 4/5

Astrid & Veronika by Linda Olsson - As I wrote before, I didn't care for this book very much! Once again I didn't agree with all the great reviews I'd read. 2.5/5

The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky - This is the first book by Delinsky that I've read. Any suggestions for another good one by her?4/5

An Absolute Gentleman by R.M. Kinder - I couldn't get into this one. I think at a different time maybe I could have, but I tried to read this in the middle of a difficult time (my dad died on 5/30*) and it just wasn't the right book.

The Ghost Writer by John Harwood - I didn't understand all of this! I certainly did not really understand the ending. I liked the book though and would have rated it a "4" if I understood it better. 3.5/5

Skin by Ted Dekker - I read 2 chapters then quit. First of all I was a little spooked from reading The Ghost Writer, my husband was out of town, and it was pouring rain and storming like crazy the day I started it. I decided it wasn't the right time to read this. :-) Also, I think after The Ghost Writer I wanted something a little lighter to read.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell - I didn't even give this one a chance. I think I quit reading after 5 pages. :-) I think I may have checked this out once before and didn't read it. First of all, sci-fi isn't really "my thing". I really prefer a story about something that really did or really could happen. But once in awhile I will read a book that doesn't fit this bill and really enjoy it. But again, after reading The Ghost Writer and then starting Skin, I realized I wanted to read something lighter, something that didn't require me to think so hard about who was who, and how everything might fit into the storyline, and find a book that I could just "read" and enjoy, if that makes sense!

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan - THIS fit the bill! I loved this from page 1! I had to put it down after reading the first 3 chapters and go to bed (it was already late and my husband was out of town all week and I knew I needed all the sleep I could get to take care of my very active little girls by myself for a week!). I probably could have read it cover to cover in one sitting if I had the time. This book replaces Year of Wonders as my favorite read of 2008 so far. 5/5

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer - I really enjoyed this book. I read so many great reviews on it, but as Carrie from Mommy Brain said about her reaction after reading the reviews, "I just shrugged. Not my thing." I've never read a book or seen a movie about vampires. But after reading Carrie's review along with so many others, I decided to give it a try. I thought it was very good, I can't wait to read the sequels! 4.5/5

Parenting is Heart Work by Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller - This is the one I didn't read yet.

So there you have it, I *finally* wrote about these!

**********

*I hate to just mention my dad's death in passing like this, but as this is my book blog I didn't know how to bring it up here. I blogged more about it on my family blog. His passing is certainly not just a "blip in my life" as it seems to come across by the way I mentioned it above. He was the most wonderful dad, I loved him so much and I miss him dearly. I am so blessed to be his daughter. My parents gave me and my sisters an idyllic childhood and have been very supportive as we've become adults and have our own families. My mom died last July so this has been a hard year for my family. Thankfully I have 3 sisters, we all live near each other, and we have each other to lean on. My dad wasn't much of a reader though! Nor was my mom. Not sure where I got it from. :-) I love you mom and dad!!!

May 12 Library Visit Review

I finished these 4:

The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth - As I said in an earlier post, the book called The Ghost Writer on my TBR list is actually written by John Harwood. I got the wrong book. :-) But it had great reviews on Amazon so I decided to give it a try. And try I did, but I couldn't get into it.

Consider Lily by Ann Dayton and May Vanderbilt - LOVED it! It had a few flaws, but overall it was great. 4/5

London Holiday by Richard Peck - Couldn't get into this one either.

Knitalong - Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together by Larisa Brown and Martin John Brown - I love everything about knitting....I love reading about it, listening to podcasts about it, talking to others about it, thinking about it, and of course actually knitting. :-) This book was just "ok" for me though. 3/5

April 18 Library Visit Review

Here are the library books I checked out a few weeks ago with my report on them:

Emil and Karl by Yankev Glatshteyn - Couldn't get into, didn't finish

Sacred Cows by Karen E. Olson - Couldn't get into, didn't finish

The Chatham School Affair by Thomas H. Cook - I loved the storyline of this book, but sometimes got bogged down in the reading of it. One of the characters, now an old man, is looking back at the time when he was in high school and a crime was committed. Through these flashbacks you kept getting bits and pieces of what happened back then. This is obviously done on purpose to add to the suspense and mystery of it all. But by page 100 or so, I just felt like GIVE ME THE DETAILS ALREADY!!! I would sometimes get so impatient to get to the bottom of it all that I would skim parts of the book. There was one last twist at the very end that surprised/shocked me. 4/5

March by Geraldine Brooks - Really loved parts of it, bored with others, not nearly as good at Year of Wonders. 3.5/5

A Vineyard in Tuscany by Ferenc Mate - Couldn't get into, didn't finish

The Book of Jane by Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt - Loved this book! I'm looking forward to reading the other 2 books by these authors (although one of them got some bad reviews on Amazon.com) 4.5/5

Gluten-free Girl by Shauna James Ahern - This book was pretty good. I'm not allergic to gluten or anything, the book just appealed to me. However I HATE to cook! This book would probably inspire most people to want to cook, but not me. :-) She certainly has a way of describing food. 3.5/5

After I checked these out, I also got Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Noble and Have You Found Her? by Janice Erlbaum. They were both holds that came in. Eat, Pray, Love was for a book club I am in with my 3 sisters, my cousin Lynn, and one other lady. If the book wasn't for the club, I would NOT have continued reading this book past the first few chapters. I didn't like the author at all and disagreed with just about all her beliefs and philosophies. I read the first 1/3, the part about when she in Italy. I skimmed the rest of the book.

Have You Found Her? is the sequel to Girlbomb that I read in early April. Despite the frequent use of the "F word" (I'm sorry but I just hate that word! It's so vulgar) and the disfunctional lifestyle of the author, I enjoyed Girlbomb. I liked Have You Found Her?just a bit better. The back cover promised a "bombshell" near the end and there definitely was one. I didn't expect it. 4/5