Yes, I'm a bit behind on my book reviews! I'm going to try to catch up on a few this weekend!
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane was an excellent read. It is a psychological thriller that tells the story of a mental institution on- you guessed it- Shutter Island. This book has great characters that pulled me in quickly. With these types of stories I often try to "figure it out" and was pleasantly surprised with the ending! I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm curious to see how closely it follows the book.
It has been brought to my attention (thanks, Mom) that I have no updated my most recent books I've read. I apologize!
Book number thirteen was Midwives by Chris Bohjalian. This story is about a midwife who is put on trial after a patient of hers dies during childbirth. The midwife, wanting to save the life of the baby, performs an emergency cesarean section on the mother. The question is raised- was the mother actually dead, or did she die as a result of the surgery.
While I enjoyed the book and thought it was interesting, I also felt it moved very slowly and dragged on a bit long. I did enjoy that the story was told through the point of view of the midwife's daughter, as well as having excepts from the midwife's journal.
I chose my latest read because it was the sequel to my book #10- The Trophy Wives Club. I have to say, I did not enjoy this book as much as the first in the series. This book did not focus on the same main character as the original. Instead, Back to Life was told by two characters- Lindsey and Jane, both who had been married to the same man, Ron. Lindsey is Ron's widow, however, after his death his ex-wife Jane appears because she is in charge of his will. The story goes back and forth between Lindsey and Jane, their relationship with Ron, and the similaries and differences between the women.To be honest, I was really a bit bored with the story overall. The book did have a stronger ending than the first in the series, but Back to Life moved slowly and was just lacking in excitement for me.
One Saturday night as I was walking through Barnes & Noble, sipping my Cinnamon Dolce Latte, I was looking for some new books and stumbled upon The Trophy Wives Club by Kristin Billerbeck. I had never heard of Billerbeck, but after reading the back of the book (and being happy with the discounted price tag on the cover) I decided to bring the book home. I'm definitely glad I made that decision!Billerbeck writes Christian Chick Lit. I did not even know that Christian Chick Lit was a genre! The story is about a woman living in Los Angeles who is suddenly kicked out of her home by her producer husband, who now wants a divorce. She eventually meets a support group at church (The Trophy Wives Club) who help her move on and start her new life. The book moved at a great pace and was an enjoyable read! In fact, I've already ordered the next book in the series!
A few weeks ago I was wandering through blogs and various book review sites, where I stumbled upon The Gospel According to Lost, by Chris Seay. I immediately knew I would be buying this book. I am a Lost junkie. It is one of the few things on television that my husband and I watch together. (The only other things we watch together are sporting events- baseball games, hockey games, and football games.) ANYWAY, I bought this book on Saturday night. I finished the book on Sunday morning.
My thoughts on the book- it was good, but I have to say I didn't LOVE it. The author looks into the character conflicts and relationships on the show and how faith and religion play a role in the show. This book was written after last season, and personally I wish the author would have waited until after this final season. The book was a quick read, and if you are a Lost junkie and have a chance to read it I'd definitely say to pick it up, but don't have high expectations.
Yes, as I mentioned previously...I'm a big James Patterson fan. I don't know what it is about his books, but they suck me in! For those unfamiliar with his books, let me try to explain.
His chapters are SHORT. I'm talking they are two to four pages. This, in my opinion, is a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because if I quickly need to stop and put my book down I can easily do that and not be stuck in the middle of a chapter. (I HATE when that happens!) The curse- well...I like to read at night in bed. And I find myself reading Patterson's books and saying to myself, "Just one more chapter. Ok, just one more. Well, just another quick one." Next thing I know I've read another 100 pages and it is 2:00 in the morning. And remember, I have two young, EARLY RISING, boys. Reading until 2:00 is just NOT a good idea! Well, ok...I do complain about my lack of sleep, but I really do love reading alone at night. It is MY quiet time!
Enough of my rambling here. I thoroughly enjoyed Mary Mary. This is one of the Alex Cross novels, and this one takes place in Los Angeles where there is a serial killer on the loose killing famous stars...specifically mothers. I always try to figure out who the killer is in Patterson's crime novels, but I never seem to! There is always a wrench thrown in! I LOVE IT! It keeps me coming back for more!
Again, for my latest read, I reached into my box of books that had been abandoned. I had borrowed this book from my sister-in-law several years ago. Before I had kids even! I'm glad I picked it up...it was a very interesting read. The book is labeled as non-fiction, but there is a disclaimer in the book saying names and certain details were changed. That leads me to believe that this is more of a dramatization of actual events.The story is about a group of MIT students who were skilled in card counting and won large amounts of money from Las Vegas (and other) casinos. The book was a fast read- it only took me a few hours, and whether or not all the stories were true...well, it was still pretty interesting. Now I'd like to see the movie 21, which is based on this book.
A friend of mine let me borrow The Pact by Jodi Picoult and said it was a good read. A few months ago I had read My Sisters Keeper (also by Picoult) which I really enjoyed, so I was looking forward to reading this. I do have to say, the story started out slow. After some of the books I had recently read I was hesitant in continuing, but the story did quickly pick up. The book was good, but I didn't love it. I can't really explain why without giving too much away, but I'll just say I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
I'm a bit behind on my book reviews, but I have the stomach bug to blame for that! I actually wasn't even able to pick up a book for two days, which is VERY unlike me!
I picked up the book By the Time You Read This by Lola Jaye one day as I was walking through Target. The story is about a girl whose father dies of cancer when she is just five years old. Knowing he won't be around, the father writes a journal for his daughter for each year of her life as a way to guide her. The book was enjoyable, although a bit slow at some points. I would recommend it!
I will preface this by stating- James Patterson is one of my favorite authors, and rarely am I disappointed by his books! A friend lent me this book about a year ago and it ended up in my "to be read" box of books. (By the way, that box I believe is now empty!) So earlier this week I pulled it out and started reading. The first night I read 60 pages. Last night I finished the last 250 pages in a matter of two hours. A quick read that sucked me in! I think a lot of it has to do with Patterson's style of writing, but it makes it easy for me to read and enjoy! I'm sure you will see me reading several more of his books before the year is over!
My latest book was To the Power of Three by Laura Lippman. Unfortunately, this was one of the worst books I have read in awhile. I felt it was lacking character development and the story jumped around a lot. At first I kept reading to see if it would get any better, and then I just decided to finish it because I had already invested so much time into it. This is my first time reading anything by this author, and I don't think I'll be picking anything up of hers anytime soon!
Yes, this is just a random post. Nothing of extreme importance. Just me rambling! Still trying to find a blog design I like. I wish I was artsy and creative like that. But I'm not. I have seen a few custom designers that I like what they've done. We'll have to see... Today Nicholas had Pajama Day at school. He got to wear his (new) Supersaurus Rex jammies and his Lightning McQueen slippers. He thought that was the coolest thing. Tomorrow I get my new front loader washer and dryer. I'm VERY excited. Sad that I'm excited about new appliances. Am I showing my age? Anyway, our dryer died on me last week in the middle of a load, and since we had a stacked washer/dryer combo we had to replace both. Timing was not ideal (we were hoping to do it after we received our income tax refund) but I guess we did not get to make that decision! So this weekend I will be washing about 20 million loads of laundry. Ok, not that many, but there is A LOT to be washed. Let's see...I'm also working on getting clothes listed on ebay. I sell the boys old clothing on ebay to help buy them new stuff. I have a lot of spring and summer stuff to sell. First, I need to see what still may fit them (Erik has some hand me downs from Nicholas) and then see what needs to go. It is a time consuming task, but it will be worth it. Oh...and I'm TOTALLY stealing this idea from my friend Dana's blog. She's keeping track of all the books she's read in 2010 in her sidebar on her blog. She's up to 5 or something already...and I'm still on my first book of the year. But I'm going to keep track of what I've read as well. I'm going to set a goal of reading 50 books this year. That's about an average of one a week. I think it is doable. Maybe I'll even give some commentary on the books. And I'm ALWAYS looking for suggestions on books to read! And to end this...some pictures to share. I got a new fancy phone for Christmas that takes pictures...so I like to annoy my kids by taking pictures of them 500 times a day!Erik patting Nicholas on the head while he was sleeping
Erik climbing on his toybox to play with his toys
And Erik again sitting on the other toybox (aka-his office) playing with the toy laptop
Posts
