Book Update

I'm sure you all love my book updates so here's the latest. Also this time I tried to include a little description of the book. I'm not super good at these so if you're interested you should probably just click the link and read the real one. All of these were really good books and I would highly recommend reading.

The Forever Marriage by Ann Bauer

This book is about a wife who never really loved her husband while they were together. She was cheating on him thru most of the marriage. He dies of cancer at the beginning of the book and the rest of the book explains their relationship and her life and she is starting to realize how much she misses him. It's really quite good.

I Couldn't Love You More by Jillian Medoff

This one is hard to explain without really giving too much away. It's really good though. I would just read the description from the link and see if you think it sounds interesting to you.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

I've really started living John Green books more. It's hard for me to get into them and the first half I usually read really slow because it's not super interesting. He does a great job of setting up the story for later, but sometimes it's really hard for me to get into. Once it is set up though I read it really fast and really enjoy the book.

An Abundance of Katherines is about a boy who was a child prodigy. He has only ever dated Katherines and after he gets dumped by the latest Katherine he decides to go on a road trip with one of his friends. They end up in a small town and work for a lady while he also tries to work on a relationship equation.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Another John Green book about relationships. This time a boy goes to boarding school in search of adventure. He meets someone named Alaska and he falls in love with her, but she sends him off on a little adventure looking for her.

Wonder by R.C. Palacio

This is the story of a boy who was born with a facial deformity. Because of this he was homeschooled, but now he's going to be going to school. It's really the story about him going to school how the other kids, his family, and himself see him and treat him. It is a children's book so has really short chapters and is a very quick read. It is really good though-probably one of my favorite books from this summer.

The Lost Wife by Alyson Richmond

The book is mainly set during WWII. It's about a couple who get married and then are separated because they are both Jewish. Then each start a new family in the US thinking the other one is dead. They meet up years later.

Books, Books, and More Books

Here is a list of the books that I've read since the last time I posted. They were all really good and I would recommend them to anyone to read. I'm not going to give a description of them or a picture because I'm being lazy, but I thought you may want an update if you're looking for something to read. For each of the books there is a great description on amazon.

In a Heartbeat-Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving by Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy

Paper Towns by John Green

Time of My Life by Allison Winn Scotch

The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

50 Shades of Grey, 50 Shades Darker, and 50 Shades Freed by E.L James

Books I've Read

I've done quite a bit of reading so far this summer since I don't have a whole lot else to do. Most of the books that I've read I the suggestion from something I pinned called 10 books girls should read in their 20s and from Ashley Spivey's blog saynotocosmo:

How To Love An American Man by Kristine Gasbarre

This was a great book. It's the story about how Krsitine's grandma taught her all about finding love.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

This was also a good book. It's about a girl who keeps re-living the day she died and if she can change things.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

This book turned out to be really good. It's written kind of strangely, but the more I got into it the more I liked it. It's about a boys freshman year of school and is a movie coming out in Sept.

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

I've seen the movie before and enjoy it, but I really liked the book. From what I remember from the movie the two are pretty similar, but I could be wrong. I think I may want to read more in the series.

Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close

This was also written kind of strangely in my opinion, but ended up being pretty good. It's about a few women who are in their 20s and what their lives are like as they watch a lot of their friends get married.

The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank

This book isn't about hunting or fishing it's about love. It's also rather strange, but had quite a bit of good parts as well.

What I Know Now: Letters to My Younger Self by Ellyn Spragins 

This is a collection of stories written by famous women about what they wish they would have known when they were younger. It was very interesting and a very quick read.

What Did I Do Wrong? By Liz Pryor

This was also interesting it's about stories of ending friendships. I don't feel like it totally related to me yet since I haven't really had any friendships end. Most of them would probably be because of moving, etc, but none ending surprisingly. It was still a good read.

And those are all the books I've read so far. Do you have any suggestions for me? I currently have a couple more checked out from the library that I'll be finishing and am waiting for a couple to come in, but am open to suggestions!

The Millenium Series

 

The Millennium Series were the last 3 books that I read over break. They include: the girl with the dragon tattoo, the girl who played with fire, and the girl who kicked the hornets nest. They were all really good books. I would say that they are all a mystery. The first book I thought was really hard to get into, but once you did it was a really quick read. All of them were really hard for me to put down. I would recommend you to read them all they are hard to explain and some of it gets really graphic, but they are SOOOO good.

On Saturday morning I asked/forced Courtney to go to the girl with the dragon tattoo movie with me. I had heard good things about it from most people. Some people felt it was too graphic or whatever. But most of my friends had either seen it or didn't want to see it. Courtney agreed to go with me and I was very glad that she did. It was really good and I enjoyed it a lot. It was really close to the book, which I always appreciate. Courtney also ended up liking it so it wasn't so bad that I made her go see it with me.

Now I'll be done with my book reviews until this summer so I'm sure most of you will appreciate it, but I really read some great books over break so you should read them too :)

One for the Money

  

As many of you have now realized I read a lot of books over break. Since I didn't actually do much else then read at watch some Gilmore Girls I actually really enjoyed this. There have been a few books that I haven't written about yet, which I will do this week. 

One of these books is One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. I've heard of the Stephanie Plum series for awhile as my mom, aunt, and cousin all love them and think they are hilarious. I never really got into reading them. I'm not exactly sure why, but I didn't. Then I saw that they were coming out with a movie so I thought that I really needed to read the book first. 

It's about a girl who becomes a bounty hunter and the crazy things that she does to try and catch the guy with the very little experience that she has. I really liked the book and can't wait to see the movie very soon. I will probably read the rest of the series this summer. The library didn't have the second book checked in when I was home and since I don't have time to read during school this will then have to be put off until this summer. This book was a really easy and quick read and was very entertaining so if you haven't

More Reading

I've been reading a lot over break (if you haven't noticed already) so I thought I'd update you on a couple of the books that I've read recently.

I heard about "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer at the suggestion of my friend Michelle. I really liked the Twilight books so I thought that I would also like this book. It's kind of a strange book, but I really liked it. It's really hard to explain what it's about and if I tried I would make it sound really stupid. Here's the description from amazon and if you like books like are more sci-fi, etc. then I think you would also like this book.

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, didn't expect to find its former tenant refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.
As Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of Jared, a human who still lives in hiding, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she's never met. Reluctant allies, Wanderer and Melanie set off to search for the man they both love.
Featuring one of the most unusual love triangles in literature, THE HOST is a riveting and unforgettable novel about the persistence of love and the essence of what it means to be human. (2008)

"Bossypants" by Tina Fey was another book that I recently read. It's an autobiography of her life and told in a very humorous way. If you like Tina Fey or her sense of humor then I would really recommend this book. It's a really quick and easy read and is also very funny.

Micheal Oher

Like I said before I read both the Blind Side and I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to the Blind Side and Beyond. Both of these books centered around Michael Oher.

The Blind Side was more about football and the development of the left tackle position. It also obviously talked about Michael's story from birth to the beginning of college. It was pretty interesting to read. I cared more about his story then the development of the position. I understand enough about football to watch it, but not quite enough to read about the different positions and to know what they are talking about. Since I LOVE the movie I did enjoy reading the book and seeing what really happened. Some of the things in the movie were switched around or not really explained enough so I enjoyed seeing that side of the story.

I Beat the Odds was from Michael's perspective. I liked this book much better. It told his life story from his point of view. He also said that he wrote it so that people who are in his position either living in bad parts of town, being in foster care, etc. can see what he did and use his experiences to leave that cycle of poverty and do what they love. This was very interesting to get the whole story of his life and exactly what happened. It was also very inspiring. When I get a little older I would consider being a foster parent or working for some other type of organization to help disadvantaged youth.

I've grown up knowing about foster care/adoption with my mom having a social work background and spending a decent amount of time while I was growing up as a social worker. I always knew that there were kids who didn't have families and were shuffled around from foster home to foster home, but I never thought about what this was like for the kids. Seeing this perspective really made me think more about this.