Spring Reading Thing Wrap-up

How did I do? I started the challenge out with eleven books on my list. Of those original eleven, I read six. Not too impressive. But I felt free to expand my list as the days went by…I think it was "legal" but am not really sure it was in the spirit of the challenge. I read an additional 19 books. So I am happy with the amount that I read, I just wish I had stuck to my original list a little better. (And the butchered list, if you want to view the mess, is here.)

What was my favorite? My favorite from my original list would have to be Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. It wasn't an easy read, it didn’t hook me and make me want to not put it down. But it was written in a way that made difficult concepts easier to understand, it was thought provoking, and it was amazingly timely considering it is more than fifty years old. It's the book above all the others that I am happiest to be able to say, "I've read this." Of the add-ons, I loved two, The Help by Kathryn Stockett - ooh that was good, and When Madeline Was Young by Jane Hamilton.

Where am I stuck? I went through another Callapidder Days challenge without cracking open Pillars of the Earth - what is my problem? I have heard great things about it, it's sitting there waiting for me. I don’t know why I just haven't felt the urge to read it. And I really thought when I wrote my opening post that I would make a concerted effort to finish John Adams by the end of the Spring challenge but I didn’t. You might say, just give up on John Adams, but I don’t want to do that. I started the US President's Reading Project to learn more about history…I will have to force myself to read all of them until I start getting a firmer grasp of the subject.

What's next? I'm working on a few other challenges... The First In A Series challenge, the 2009 Audiobook challenge, the A-Z Reading challenge,and the Chronicles of Narnia challenge.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Katrina for hosting the challenge. I didn’t get to nearly as many of the other blogs as I had hoped but the ones I did get to, I enjoyed. And I got some good picks, for example, after seeing it listed a few hundred times, I went and bought The Mysterious Benedict Society which I L-O-V-E-D! So thank you also to the all the participants - it was great fun being part of this community of readers. See you in the Fall!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

From the author's website: Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

Great book. The dust jacket has that "pitch perfect" blurb on it and it is so true. Each woman has her own voice and they each feel absolutely authentic. Much is written in dialect but it feels right not forced. There are moments of laugh out loud humor, when Skeeter interviews for and is awarded a job writing a housekeeping column for the local paper, her mother who agonizes over Skeeter's single girl status says, "Oh the irony of it." which maybe won't make you chuckle as much as me - until you read the book. There's real strength in these women, the help, that they
put themselves aside and did what they needed to survive. I wonder how much of that still has to happen today - the vestiges of racism that I, as a white woman, don't even notice?


This book is my "H" for the A-Z Reading Challenge! Click on the logo to see my progress.






and this one too...
This is on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.

Shopaholic & Sister by Sophie Kinsella

From the author's website: What’s a round-the-world honeymoon if you can’t buy the odd souvenir to ship back home? Like the twenty silk dressing gowns Becky found in Hong Kong…the hand-carved dining table (and ten chairs) from Sri Lanka…the, um, huge wooden giraffes from Malawi (that her husband Luke expressly forbade her to buy)… Only now Becky and Luke have returned home to London and Luke is furious. Two truckloads of those souvenirs have cluttered up their loft, and the bills for them are outrageous. Luke insists Becky go on a budget. And worse: her beloved best friend Suze has found a new best friend while Becky was away. Becky’s feeling rather blue—when her parents deliver some incredible news. She has a long-lost sister! Becky is thrilled! She’s convinced her sister will be a true soulmate. They’ll go shopping together, have manicures together.…Until she meets Jessica for the first time and gets the shock of her life. Surely Becky Bloomwood’s sister can’t…hate shopping?

My favorite part of the Shopaholic books are the memos and letters interspersed throughout from various bankers or creditors to Rebecca. I find their reactions to Rebecca's behavior much more amusing than Rebecca's actual behavior. With her, I just get angry, she makes the same mistakes over and over again but then everyone just finds it endearing and all is well in the end - pffft. I looked back at my reading journal and I liked the first book in the series - I gave it an 8, then the next one I read I gave a 7, and now here is this one with a 6. It's just all been downhill! (I have to take one second and say how disappointed I was in the Shopaholic movie. It did not translate well to the big screen but the book is really cute and fun!) So with the negativity said, I'll read a 6 - this is light, light, light easy reading - fluffy, finish in a couple of hours reading. Some days, that's just what I want.

This is on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.

Dry by Augusten Burroughs

From the author's website:You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. You've seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. Ordinary. But when the ordinary person had two drinks, Augusten was circling the drain by having twelve; when the ordinary person went home at midnight, Augusten never went home at all. Loud, distracting ties, automated wake-up calls and cologne on the tongue could only hide so much for so long. At the request (well, it wasn't really a request) of his employers, Augusten lands in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey, Jr., are immediately dashed by grim reality of fluorescent lighting and paper hospital slippers. But when Augusten is forced to examine himself, something actually starts to click, and that's when he finds himself in the worst trouble of all. Because when his thirty days are up, he has to return to his same drunken Manhattan life-and live it sober. What follows is a memoir that's as moving as it is funny, as heartbreaking as it is real. DRY is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a Higher Power.

Fascinating book! Yes, it's about the drinking but it's more about the relationships. I loved his friends, Hayden and Pighead and his co-worker Greer, I loved the way that they loved Augusten. I didn't love Foster but he certainly was riveting. What fun to get a peek into the world of advertising! Working on a German beer campaign, they brainstormed a list of "all things German" and, of course, it included cuckoo clocks and lederhosen, but then it also included techno music and leather underwear - that's just funny. Thats the way of the book - life but funny, sad but funny, real (mostly) but funny. There were some flashbacks to childhood so the ick factor of Running With Scissors wasn't completely gone. And you know the inevitable is going to happen so a lot of the book just feels like you're waiting for it. But in the end, it's just amazing, when you consider the life he had led already - just in his teens and early 20's - that he survived it all to write his memoirs.

This book is my "D" for the A-Z Reading Challenge! Click on the logo to see my progress.






and this one too...
This is on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.

French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano

From the dust jacket: Stylish, convincing, wise, funny - and just in time: the ultimate non-diet book, which could radically change the way you think and live.
French women don't get fat, but they do enjoy bread and pastry, wine, and regular three-course meals. Unlocking the simple secrets of this "French paradox" - how they enjoy food while staying slim and healthy - Mireille Guiliano gives us a charming, empowering take on health and eating for our times.
I think I gained three pounds this week while reading this book. You see the part about 'indulge in what you really want instead of the imitation chemical filled diet foods' really took. The rest of the advice - not so much. Here are the bullet points and my resolutions...

*I did look around the produce department when I went grocery shopping at the commissary to see what a leek might look like but they didn't appear to have any so Magical Leek Soup didn't happen. I'll try to check out the fancier grocery store and see what they have.

*I nodded along to the 'drink more water' admonishments, that really does help me but I am addicted to my diet colas and didn't make any progress on that front. I'll try to add a cup of water every night before dinner this week. In fact, I'll try putting a glass of water at each person's place next to their initial glass of milk. We go through five-six gallons of milk a week so I know these three children are getting plenty of calcium but water I'm not so sure about.

*I wore my pedometer one day only to discover that despite working all day long, I had only logged 1200 steps. My job is apparently even more sedentary than I thought! I'm going to try adding walking back to my day and I did walk last night!

*I'm certainly not making any homemade yogurt no matter how easy she says it is. I will try to buy yogurt and eat one a day, I mean, I do listen to the news, I've heard about how important dairy is to weight loss.

The other idea that I would like to try is not putting all the food on the plate all at once. Dinner for our family is a together time but it does go by quickly. I am always amazed at how much longer it takes me to get the meal on the table than it does for the family to eat the meal. So I'm going to try to sneak in a "salad course" or a "soup course" rather than having soup (as we sometimes do) in bowls right there beside our plates or salad in a big bowl in the table to take as you like. Slowing us down would be good for health and for extending that family time allowing for more bickering between the children conversation.

She talks a lot about balance and equilibrium and compensation...so those indulgences I've been enjoying are supposed to be balanced with a "corresponding reduction". Aha, even the non-diet can't get around that sticking point...EATING LESS FOOD!


This is one of the books on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.

Please Stop Laughing at Me by Jodee Blanco

I feel kind of mean saying it but I really didn't like this book. I wanted to like Jodee Blanco, this is her memoir of the bullying she endured from 5th to 12th grade. I was ready to feel sorry for her and then be uplifted by her triumph at the end but it just didn't happen for me.

Jodee goes into excruciating detail about the humiliations she faced. Her part in all of them is always being the "good one". The one who helps the handicapped students, the one who tattles to the teacher, the one who excels at public speaking and writing poetry. With all those nice qualities going for you, how can you go through 7 years of school and not find a friend? To be the target of bullies at four different schools says that at some point, the problem belonged in some part to Jodee. Where were the adults in her community? Being pelted with rocks, being beaten by a mob - these things get noticed. It was all a little hard to swallow. And, of course, I have no patience for teenage poetry so she wasn't winning me over there.

Perhaps if she had journeyed a little more into her metamorphosis, it would have felt more real to me. But she goes from the torment of constant bullying for all those years to....turn the page and voila she's a successful publicist, works with movie stars, and is the belle of the ball at her high school reunion. Okay. And, with that, I was just glad it was done.

I passed it on to my teenage daughter, Bookworm, if she reads it, I'll give an update.

Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.

Mrs. Pollifax Pursued by Dorothy Gilman

The Mrs. Pollifax series consists of gentle, G-rated mysteries along the lines of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency or the "Cat Who..." books. Mrs. Pollifax is a little old lady who through strange circumstances ends up doing missions for the CIA. In between Garden Club meetings, murders just drop into her lap.

This book is no exception, Mrs. Pollifax is happily at home when she discovers a fugitive hiding in her closet. Mrs. Pollifax takes the girl, Kadi, under her wing and their off to outsmart all the criminals. This always involves travel to an exotic locale, in this book Africa. Another part of the story takes place in a circus and I couldn't help thinking again and again, "Well, it's sure not Water for Elephants" but that doesn't mean I didn't like it. A little visit with Mrs. Pollifax is like spending time with an old friend. When I first discovered the Mrs. Pollifax books, I read them all. Then when I ran out, I was done. But Dorothy Gilman wasn't done; she wrote more, I just never picked them up. I've done that with The Ladies Detective Agency, and with Mitford, and with the Cat Who books - I'm loyal until it requires some patience on my part (waiting for the next book to come out!)and then I'm outta there. It's why I never read book six or seven in Harry Potter. I'm a serial binger.

I enjoyed my visit with Mrs. Pollifax. I'm not running out to find others but if one drops in my lap like a corpse to Mrs. Pollifax, I'll read it.

This is one of the books on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.

Just Take My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark

From the author's website: In her new thriller, America's #1 bestselling Queen of Suspense delves into a legal battle over the guilt or innocence of a man accused of murdering his wife. Woven into her plot is an eerie, little-understood but documented medical phenomenon -- the emergence of a donor's traits and memories in the recipient of a heart transplant.

Natalie Raines, one of Broadway's brightest stars, accidentally discovers who killed her former roommate and sets in motion a series of shocking events that puts more than one life in extreme peril.

While Natalie and her roommate, Jamie Evans, were both struggling young actresses, Jamie had been involved with a mysterious married man to whom she referred only by nickname. Natalie comes face to face with him years later and inadvertently addresses him by the nickname Jamie had used. A few days later, Natalie is found in her home in Closter, New Jersey, dying from a gunshot wound.


Page 36! I figured out whodunit on page 36 of a 322 page book. Needless to say the rest of the book was not as satisfying as I had hoped when I bought the book. I love Mary Higgins Clark. I am such a Mary Higgins Clark fan that I committed a sin - I bought this book off the rack in hardcover. Why? Why? Why? I never do that. Finding a book I want for fifty cents at a used book sale is part of the adventure for me. If I really want something specific, like for book club...I go used on Amazon. I never pay full price. So I think I jinxed myself. Yes, she's kind of formulaic - the brainy heroine who doesn't realize her own beauty is a staple Higgins Clark character, but usually I am a little uncertain about the bad guy until it all plays out and so I am content with her books. Content is not exciting but it's a pleasant feeling and, really, reading is for relaxation - content is just fine. The good features of this book - 1. She really laid out the details of the case during the trial. I don't remember her using a trial as such a prominent part of a book before - very Grishamesque. 2. The creepy guys are really creepy. 3. The whole heart storyline wasn't overwhelming, in fact, I hardly thought it affected the heroine at all - but maybe there was a little skimming involved on my part! So this wasn't the best. I have a friend who suspects the daughter, Carol Higgins Clark, is slowly taking over writing under her mother's name and that is why the recent releases don't measure up. I just think when you're writing your 30th or 40th mystery novel, perhaps it gets a little old.

This book is my "J" for the A-Z Reading Challenge! Click on the logo to see my progress.






and this one too...
This is on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.

A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer - is it for Tween?

A Child Called It is Dave Pelzer's memoir of growing up in a terribly abusive home. His fairy tale mother becomes an alcoholic and turns into a monster. She is violent, withholds food, and emotionally manipulative. She isolates David, fools others, and vicously tries to destroy him day after day. This is the first in a trilogy of books and covers his early years from age 4-12 until he is rescued by Child Porotective Services. (BTW Those years in CPS are the second book and not real pretty either.)

This was a reread for me wondering if I could possibly put it in the hands of my sixth grader, Tween, the subject matter is so dark. I wouldn't be handing it to him because it's well written - it isn't. But it is sensational in the way of "alligator eats man" sensational. The content just stops you cold because it is so unimaginable to anyone who has ever loved another living thing. It's the train wreck that you don't want to see but just can't seem to avert your gaze.

Tween needs a book to read; daily reading is a homework assignment with a journal entry as proof. The RoundFile house is FULL of books. Bookworm and Youngest read constantly and Bookworm hoards books so her bedroom looks like a library. However, there is not a single book that interests Tween. No book can make that required twenty minutes of reading pass without whining and complaining and stalling and just plain driving Just Mom crazy. So I thought about what I see Tween watching on TV, lots of tabloid style shows i.e. "100 most outrageous ___". If you translate that to books - I think A Child Called "It fits the bill.

The book is an easy read technically - easy sentence structure, not much difficult vocabulary. There's some foul language - even the F word. It's a difficult read emotionally but I think it will draw him in. Tween thinks I am abusive because I force him to live in a ranch style home while all the other kids live in two story houses. And he only gets a new skateboard when he earns enough money to buy one, the other kids get one practically on demand (or so he says). And I won't let him drink an energy drink chock full of sugar and caffeine half an hour before bedtime, and I demand that he do his homework before sports, or youth group, or movies ...it's just torture. I'm pretty confident in all those parenting decisions but this one...not so sure. Maybe this will go down as one of my bad parenting decisions but I'm giving him the book. We'll file this under the heading of...I'll do anything to get him to read. We'll see how it goes.

This is one of the books on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.






Click here to see my progress towards completing the challenge!

When Madeline Was Young by Jane Hamilton

From Amazon's product description: Jane Hamilton, award-winning author of The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World brings us a rich and loving novel about a non-traditional family in the aftermath of a terrible accident.

When Aaron Maciver’s beautiful young wife, Madeline, suffers a head injury in a bicycle crash, she is left with the mental capabilities of a six-year-old. In the years that follow, Aaron and his second wife care for Madeline with deep tenderness and devotion as they raise two children of their own. Inspired in part by Elizabeth Spencer’s Light in the Piazza, Hamilton offers an honest and exquisite portrait of how a family tragedy forever shapes the boundaries of love.

This book is a peaceful yet strange journey. The story is told from the point of view of Madeline's younger "brother" although of course we know that really Madeline is his father's ex-wife so their relationship if Madeline wasn't disabled would be more like step-mother/step-son. Mac doesn’t tell the tale by starting at one point and moving chronologically through his memories. It just begins and then something leaps out and he tells all about a certain period. And then your back to present day and then you're off to history again. It meanders through their lives touching down here and there. Each piece is told so well that the imagery makes you feel like you are in the midst of the scene and each scene seems equally important to the whole book. The narration is excellent although the narrator pronounces some words very differently than I have heard them before and when that happens it kind of jars me from the tale and I wonder about him - is he from another country, is it a mistake that the producer didn’t catch, or maybe I have been mispronouncing this word or that word all my life? So I have to hit the rewind button and get back into the story! The story isn't funny but the author allows Mac to have such a dry wit that as you listen something unexpectedly funny will be said and all of a sudden you're laughing.

I could see this book as the basis for a television series. There are so many layers to the story that you couldn't just make a movie and do the tale justice. And there isn't a distinct story arc - not a single problem or relationship to explore and then tie up neatly - but rather there is a web of problems and relationships that make up a family. But a television show - something like the Walton's where you can tell the tale a bit at a time would be perfect! I've finished the book - all 9 Cd's - and I still want more. I want to know where each family member goes from here. I think Hamilton did a great job developing these characters into people I want to spend time with. And, even more amazing since Hamilton is the author of two Oprah picks - the characters aren't abusing each other but are loving each other! What a treat!


I've finished up the audio book challenge but I think I'll keep adding the extras as I finish them - a little extra credit. Perhaps I can apply any extra credit to my least productive challenge.






and this one too...
This is on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.

The Quiet American by Graham Greene: A book and a movie

From the back cover: In the middle of the death throes of French colonial ambitions in Indochina, a young American idealist, Pyle, begins to fund a dangerous "Third Force". Caught between French colonists and the Vietminh, Fowler, the narrator and seasoned foreign correspondent, observes of Pyle: "I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused." As young Pyle's policies blunder into bloodshed, the older man finds it impossible to stand aside as an observer. But Fowler's motives for intervening are suspect, both to the police and to himself, for Pyle has robbed him of his Vietnamese mistress.

Graham Greene wrote this story in 1955 and it is described as "prophetic" because it seems to foreshadow the US becoming involved in Vietnam. The three main characters - Pyle, Fowler, and Phoung embody their countries - Pyle, the American, thinking he knows best and can manipulate the situation, Fowler, the European, not wanting to engage and take sides but feeling trapped into a decision, and Phoung, the complacent Vietnamese woman who wants to please and doesn't seem to know enough about freedom to even desire autonomy. Their interactions with each other as the love triangle plays out are fascinating.

Also interesting was the mystery of the "Third Force" which Fowler unravels. The book is fairly short - less than 200 pages. The action doesn't move quickly and it was all slightly confusing to me because I didn't know there was a French-Indochina conflict as a precursor to the US-Vietnam conflict so I was learning as I read. (Nothing new there - it's amazing that I have both a bachelor's and a master's and yet such a sloppy grip on history and geography.) If the book had been longer, I may not have made It through to the end because although I enjoyed this story, it wasn't clear enough and gripping enough to carry much more.

I thought perhaps, watching the movie would bring it a little more into focus for me. Wrong! The movie was just the same. It followed very true to the book. It was not an energetic story so the movie's pace wasn't very engaging. I was delighted to discover the beauty of Vietnam. In my incredible mixed up view of the world, I picture Vietnam as just jungle - a lush overgrown jungle. But the movie showed the elegant side of the country. The towns along the waterways with busy markets, restaurants, and fancy hotels.


This book is my "Q" for the A-Z Reading Challenge! Click on the logo to see my progress.






and this one too...
This is on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.

The Firemaster's Mistress by Christie Dickason

From the publisher's website: Francis Quoynt‚ Firemaster‚ is recently returned from Flanders and dreaming of making fireworks rather than war.

Instead‚ Quoynt is recruited by Robert Cecil‚ First Minister‚ to spy on Guido Fawkes and his fellow conspirators. Meanwhile‚ Sir Francis Bacon is scheming for high position and spying on Quoynt.

Kate Peach‚ a glove maker‚ was Quoynt′s lover before war took him away. Now living in Southwark‚ she is brought into grave danger. She is a secret Catholic. A fugitive Jesuit is concealed in her rooms. While Francis hopes to prevent the death of King James I and everyone in his parliament‚ Kate will have to save herself ...

Sometimes you read a book summary on a publisher's page or off the back cover and think, "Well, that's the whole story, nothing left to read." Not with this one. Reading the above summary from the publisher's webpage doesn't make this book sound like much but there really was a lot more to it. The complexity - so many characters with so many intertwined relationships was both good and bad. It was good because it certainly was interesting but it was bad in that it was kind of confusing. Just when you had things figured out, there'd be a new twist added and you were back to wondering who was tricking who and who knew what when. (See? Confusing!) Adding to my confusion, the book assumed a little more knowledge of that period of history than I possess. I am new to historical fiction (and loving it by the way thanks to the great selections Jennifer of the Literate Housewife makes for our Facebook Historical Fiction Book Club!) so names that are dropped within the story without a whole lot of explanation - Mary, Queen of Scots, Elizabeth, James - probably conjure up more meaning for others than just the vague familiarity they have for me. Even in my state of faintly cloudy befuddlement, I enjoyed the book. The relationships between the characters were interesting enough to carry the story without my full understanding of all the surrounding events. I could gather enough to sense danger, to get a feel for this time period of history, and to figure out who was on which side - even though I still am not certain which side was the "good guys" and which was the "bad guys". But the fuzziness didn't bother me too much and I don't know that I would have attended to a history lesson if the author had inserted it into the story. I probably would have skimmed over it to get back to the people and all their doings. The ending was not completely satisfying for me - a few loose ends that I would have preferred to have wrapped up! And, although I had suspected how the romance would resolve, I was still surprised when it actually happened!

I went to the author's website, christiedickason.com and there is a second book with some of the same characters. That might be fun to read. I briefly considered whether being the first of two would make this title count for the 1st in a Series Challenge and decided that was stretching the truth a bit - which may look more appealing as the deadline for completion draws closer! But for now, this will count towards the Spring Reading Thing 2009.

Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.

Undead and Unreturnable by MaryJanice Davidson

From the author's website: Even the undead celebrate Christmas, and Betsy is in heaven shopping for gifts.

But all is not merry in the mansion. It’s become infested with ghosts—really needy ones who have no qualms asking Betsy to run errands for them to rectify their pasts. Meanwhile, a serial killer is on the loose, and, being tall and blonde, Betsy perfectly fits his type.

They say Christmas is a time for friends and family. But with a half-sister who’s the devil’s daughter, an evil stepmother, a fiend living in her basement, and assorted spirits and killers running amok, Betsy is not sure she’ll survive the holidays. Oh, right. She’s already dead…

Blech! I think I need a shower - I feel dirty just for having listened to this. I hated it. I saw it on the shelf at Barnes and Noble and thought it sounded cute and fun but it was awful. I feel somewhat guilty being so mean about someone's work but this is the fourth in a series of EIGHT so I assume MaryJanice Davidson is rolling in money and could not care less what a housewife from the sticks thinks about her book.

The closest I can come to describing it is that it was like someone decided to turn Twilight into a sitcom comedy. It was a series of single episode jokes/situations just strung together without much of an overarching plot. There was a little bit of a mystery but nothing really happened on that front until disk 4 of the 5 and then it had no depth. There was the romance between the two main characters, Betsy the vampire queen and Eric Sinclair, her king. But Eric, the male lead, had zero personality, he was flat, dull and just the anti-thesis of the leading man.

The narrator was Nancy Wu and she did an alright job with some of the females but her male voices - oh my, bad, bad, bad. And there was so much foul language and vulgar sex. Hearing Nancy Wu use the bad words and read the sex scenes - ewww!

The bright spot was some good one-liners - I got the occasional laugh. And, Davidson must churn these out pretty quickly because despite the fact that this was book four and she's on number eight now, some of the cultural references and slang were still fresh.

I'm really curious who is buying and reading these books. They must sell or she wouldn't have had so many of them published. I may nose around the blogs of people doing the Vampire Challenge and see what I can find out!

This is one of my books for the 2009 Audio book Challenge. 12/12 completed on that one - my first challenge completed in 2009! Click on the button to see what else I listened too!






This book is my "U" for the A-Z Reading Challenge! Click on the logo to see my progress.






and this one too...
This is on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

"Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?" This is the ad that catches the eye of many children who then go to take a series of test to determine if they are the right child for the "special oportunity". When the final children are selected they band together and form the Mysterious Benedict Society. The Society is called upon to complete a dangerous mission and they are off for a great adventure.

Youngest devoured the book (485 pages!), then I read the book, then Bookworm read it too. It had mass appeal in the RoundFile family. Although Bookworm did sort of sniff and say, "It was OK." I thought it was much better than OK. It reminded me of Harriet the Spy mixed with Roald Dahl. The idea of the independent adventure as a child is so intoxicating. I can remember daydreaming that the president would recognise what an outstanding girl I was and grant me special permission to drive even though I was only 10 or 11 years old. I would lay in my bed and imagine how I could put a door to the outside in my room and redecorate it like an apartment and pretty much just visit my family as needed since I would be off - out the new door, driving the special car - to do exciting things. So you can see why this book appealed to me!

I liked that the children who "passed" the tests weren't all just smart, brainy types. One of our greatest blessings in life is that each of has gifts to share with the world. But some gifts are more easily recognized and rewarded than others so if your child's gift isn't in acaddemics or sports but is more ethereal like faith or kindness or creativity, this book show them how the differnet children each used their own strength for the group to succeed.

This book counts for two challenges...

This is one of the books on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.






Click here to see my progress towards completing the challenge!

Lifeguard by James Patterson

From the author's website: The danger isn't in the water.

Working as a lifeguard at a Florida resort, Ned Kelly meets a woman he is wild about, the woman of his dreams. It feels perfect in every way - except that she is used to caviar and Manolo Blahniks, and he is used to burgers and flip-flops. She is a guest at the luxurious hotel - he lives above a garage.

So when Ned's cousin offers to cut him in on a rich deal he's been commissioned to execute, Ned can't turn him down. The plan is simple, just a fast break-and-enter. The risk is high, and the reward is even greater - $5 million. But on the night of the heist, something goes devastatingly wrong. Who will save the lifeguard?

Ned walks away from his job, his town, and the woman he's fallen in love with. Runs away, actually, knowing that only velocity and secrecy can save his life. But who is pursuing him? The FBI? Whoever sabotaged the heist? Or is it all somehow tied into his new love - and his oldest enemies?

This is my third James Patterson and least favorite so far. It was still good but it wasn't great like the others. It wasn't the narration - the narrator had a great voice and the whole man talking like a woman thing wasn't as annoying as it sometimes can be. It wasn't the plot - the plot was interesting. I didn't figure all of it out until the end. (There was one major clue that kept getting overlooked that grated on my nerves. Because it was so obvious that I noticed it, all of the characters should have spied it as well.) So it's hard to put my finger on what made this book less appealing than the others. There was a little more sex - when I read a novel with a sex scene, I can just skim through and kind of ignore it. I'm not exactly a prude, but it's not for me. When you are listening to an audio book, you're kind of stuck in the moment. You can't skip ahead or you may miss some piece of dialogue that's crucial, you can't close your eyes, stick your fingers in your ear and sing "la-la-la, I'm not hearing this!" because you're driving. So the sex is there to stay. And then the main character who narrates much of the books (if not all - memory is not always good) sometimes used flowery language that didn't really seem to suit his character. Yes, he was the lifeguard with the degree, slumming it on the beach, but it still seemed strange. These two things were enough to take this book down a notch for me. I still think James Patterson is a great read and I will be excited when another of his audio books comes my way but this was not a home run.

This is one of my books for the 2009 Audio book Challenge. 11/12 completed on that one - click on the button to see how it's going!






and this one too...
This is on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.

Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin

From the author's website: Something Borrowed tells the story of Rachel, a young attorney living and working in Manhattan. Rachel has always been the consummate good girl---until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend, Darcy, throws her a party. That night, after too many drinks, Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy's fiancee.

Although she wakes up determined to put the one-night fling behind her, Rachel is horrified to discover that she has genuine feelings for the one guy she should run from. As the September wedding date nears, Rachel knows she has to make a choice. In doing so, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk all to win true happiness. Something Borrowed is a phenomenal debut novel that will have you laughing, crying, and calling your best friend.

This is your basic "chick lit" a frothy tale. It certainly held my interest but it wasn't laugh out loud funny or bring you to tears sentimental - which if I'm reading this genre is what I want. I could never just whole heartedly root for the heroine because she was after all - taking her "best friend's" fiance right out from under her nose. Maybe it's because I'm an old married woman. Maybe it's because I'm Catholic. Who knows? I just couldn't get past that little detail in order to actually like the people I was supposed to like. I read on the author's website that Hillary Swank bought the movie rights for this one and the next in the series, Something Blue. I'll go see the movie when it comes out and see if it does more for me as a movie than it did as a book.


This book counts for two challenges...

This is one of the books on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.






Click here to see my progress towards completing the challenge!

The Power of Simple Prayer by Joyce Meyer

From the author's website: In her newest book, Joyce takes the mystery out of prayer and helps you to discover a whole new way of living.

“God intends for prayer to be an integral part of our everyday lives—the easiest thing we do each day.”
—Joyce Meyer

Begin unleashing the power of simple prayer in your life today, and open the door for God to work like never before

I jokingly told my girlfriend I was having my own private revival in my car as I drove. Joyce Meyer certainly is plain spoken and entertaining. She didn't read the book for this audio book, she just gave an introduction, but her daughter has the same Minnesota flavor voice so it was a good fit. Since I am a Catholic, Joyce and I aren't the best fit but I truly got a lot out of listening to her and I have always been open minded about respecting other people's point of view.

I'm with Joyce when it comes to prayer being an all day affair, and I would believe there is scripture to back that up saying "pray without ceasing". The difference between Joyce and I is that she probably knows the passage and could quote it exactly! I have just a vague recollection.

And we agree to consecrate ourselves each day to the Lord. She does it with terrific spontaneous prayer which she reports she often utters lying face down on the floor. I do it with a flying out of my brain prayer as I drive kids to school and myself to work. And also by getting the Latin- ad majorem Dei gloriam - written at the top of my papers each day. (Roughly translated - all for the glory of God). I hope that my work reflects a desire to do God's will. I often think that I need to incorporate more prayer into my work day. I should pray for every family that I visit in my home visiting and I should suggest a prayer at our staff meetings. We three are all Christian women and prayer would not be out of the question for just us. But I digress...

Joyce left me behind with her talk of speaking in tongues and the whole 'submit to your husbands' section went in one ear and out the other. But the book overall was lively, helpful, and worth a listen. Can I get an Amen? AMEN!


Almost forgot my button...
This is one of my books for the 2009 Audio book Challenge. 10/12 completed on that one - click on the button to see how it's going!






and this one too...
This is one of the books on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.






and one more.....
This book is my "P" for the A-Z Reading Challenge! Click on the logo to see my progress.

We Thought You Would Be Prettier by Laurie Notaro

From the back cover: She thought she’d have more time. Laurie Notaro figured she had at least a few good years left. But no–it’s happened. She has officially lost her marbles. From the kid at the pet-food store checkout line whose coif is so bizarre it makes her seethe “I’m going to kick his hair’s ass!” to the hapless Sears customer-service rep on the receiving end of her Campaign of Terror, no one is safe from Laurie’s wrath. Her cranky side seems to have eaten the rest of her–inner-thigh Chub Rub and all. And the results are breathtaking.

Her riffs on e-mail spam (“With all of these irresistible offers served up to me on a plate, I WANT A PENIS NOW!!”), eBay (“There should be an eBay wading pool, where you can only bid on Precious Moments figurines and Avon products, that you have to make it through before jumping into the deep end”), and the perils of St. Patrick’s Day (“When I’m driving, the last thing I need is a herd of inebriates darting in and out of traffic like loaded chickens”) are the stuff of legend. And for Laurie, it’s all true.

This was a really fun book to read. Laurie has great growing up with a crazy family stories, some with a Catholic twist - gotta love that. She is so easy to relate to. When she goes shopping with the skinny friend and can't find a thing that fits her -ugh, that's me. When she hides the mountain of books she has purchased from her husband - me again! I like the essay format because it is easy to read; you can start and stop as you like. She has a blog now - Against My Better Judgement but for some reason I couldn't subscribe via Google Reader. (I've come across a few blogs like that - not sure why they don't work.) This was her fourth book and I think she has at least two more since this was published so I have lots more Laurie Notaro to look forward to!

This is one of the books on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

This work is Lewis' defense of Christianity. He strives to be non-denominational and simply to address the idea of Christianity. I have not yet read about CS Lewis as a person but I gather he was at one point an atheist and before this work converted to Christianity. His initial argument (probably really poorly paraphrased) is that each person has an ideal of behavior that they consider "good" and by which they judge themselves and others. Few, if any, are able to obtain this ideal behavior and yet we know of it. He thinks that in order for this ideal to exist, the understanding of something better had to come to us from something outside of ourselves (God!). He also defends the creation of the universe by God with the same kind of thought line - an architect could not create a house that he was a part of - he must be removed, a distinct separate piece in order to create. And so, God is separate from us in order to be able to create us and to form this ideal that we all intrinsically understand.

I like the section I read where CS Lewis asserts that we will be judged in the end not by how close we are to ideal but by how much progress we made with what we have been given. He acknowledges that some people are born bad tempered, impatient, sarcastic, (all those characteristics that I have and must constantly strive to overcome). So the person who started in the world with a naturally sweet disposition wouldn’t necessarily come out "ahead" of their foul mannered neighbor if the neighbor was actually working harder to overcome his temperament than the sweet one was working to use his temperament for good. So, all the goody-two-shoe's of the world take note, I may yet get to heaven and won't you be surprised to see me there!

He compares people again later in the book when he talks about how what we see as terrible sins - sins of a sexual nature - are not always the worst in God's eyes. Because our culture puts such an emphasis on sexuality these sins have taken on a heightened importance in our minds. But Lewis claims that for all we know, the prostitute may actually be closer to God than the church going man who puts his position or his wealth ahead of his love of the Lord. Lewis cites as an example people paying to see strip teases, looking at girlie pictures and reading or viewing pornography. Then he compares that to another natural drive, our drive to eat, and says we don't do this with food. we don't devote hours of time to it watching shows and reading about it. I immediately wondered if CS Lewis were alive today what would he think of the Food Network and the proliferation of magazines and cookbooks. I fantasize and almost drool as I pore over the recipes in my Southern Living magazine - is this my porn? And I love watching Unwrapped on the Food Channel - I am a sinner!

My practically perfect friend, Mary Poppins, recommended I read this and my mother is also a huge CS Lewis fan. The version I read was borrowed from my mother it was maybe the third edition and it was published in the early 1950's! Mary Poppins says she has read it again and again and I can see that. There is so much to take in that you just skim the surface with the first reading. He is such a persuasive writer with such easily understood examples hat I found myself just reading an nodding flowing like a river through the words. I know my experience would be different if I read the book as part of a discussion group and took the time to reflect and debate some of the points he makes.

Overall, excellent book, throughly enjoyed it and will definitely read it again.


This is one of the books on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2009. Click on the logo to see the rest of my list.