Books Since January 31st = 10

Oops, work, life, toddler have all gotten in the way of updating this blog.  UGH!!!  I was so determined to be a good blogger, especially because of my love for books.  Maybe this will be a fresh start, or maybe I'll update the blog again in another 5 or 6 months.  

I have a list of 10 books that I have read since January 31st.  In order of reading from February - mid-June:

• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
• Still Alice by Lisa Genova (Vines 'n Spines)
• Man in the Woods by Scott Spencer (Vines 'n Spines)
• A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Morgan
• Roses by Leila Meacham (Vines 'n Spines)
• Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher (Vines 'n Spines)
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
• Wish Club by Kim Strickland
• The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
• The Last Child by John Hart (Vines 'n Spines)

Five out of the ten books I have read since January 31st were book club books - as noted with my Vines 'n Spines remark.  

Into the Wild - I gave it two stars on my goodreads rating.  It was okay - kind of odd that a 24 year old would just take off and leave civilization behind.  Didn't love it.  

Still Alice - Four stars on goodreads.  This was really good - a very quick read.  Ami's choice for book club in April. It's about a female Harvard professor with early on-set Alzheimer's.  Chapters are done by the month and you see the decline of her life as she knows it, but the love that her family gives her - less her husband who I didn't like at all in the book.  Good read.

Man In the Woods - This one got two stars on goodreads.  I didn't love it.  It's about a guy who has always wandered and ends up killing a man when he stops off at a state park and sees the man brutally beating his dog.  It then goes through his guilt and how he lives with what he's done.  The writing is good, but I just didn't love it.  This was a Vines 'n Spines pick - I think by Kimberly.

A Gate at the Stairs - Two stars on goodreads for this one too.  Oh my, that's becoming a pattern. It's more about developing characters than truly writing a story.  Not good.  At all.

Roses - Three stars on goodreads for me.  If there was a choice for 3.5 stars, that's what it was really for me.  It is a love story, that spans decades.  I really did like it, it was better than good.  You have to be in the mood for some romance for this one.  It's told in three stories - Mary's story - the first story is a little too long, but the next two flew by for me.  So definitely better than a three, but because of the long winded-ness of Mary's story I gave it a 3. Oh, this was Andrea's choice for Vines 'n Spines - she always chooses great books!

Wishful Drinking - I rarely give 1 star on goodreads, but this one got a 1.  I did not like it at all.  Oh, the tragedy of Carrie Fisher's life - blah.  Didn't like the way that it was written, not impressed.  I have heard that her road show is pretty funny though.  This was a Vines 'n Spines pick by Kristin.  I didn't read it before book club, but then just went ahead and read it - I don't know why, good thing it was short.

The Girl With the Dragon Tatto - Four stars on goodreads.  Yay!  A great read - the first 100-150 pages were slow, but wow did it pick up.  I read it in less than a week.  I am putting off reading the next one in the series (The Girl Who Played with Fire) because I don't want to get sucked into it and be up reading until 2am and then have to go into work in the morning.  I think I'll start it this weekend, since I'm taking Monday off! 

Wish Club - Back to two stars on goodreads.  It was a silly little book about a book club that starts doing "magic" and things don't go as planned.  Light, easy, fairly quick read. 

The Forgotten Garden - Three stars on goodreads.  It was good, but it was long, I like books that are quick reads and get to the point.  Story about a four year old girl who ends up on a ship to Australia alone.  She is adopted by the port master and doesn't know about her life in England until her father tells her at 22.  She then goes on a search of her life before in England and we don't learn about her life until her granddaughter wraps up the tale when she goes to find out about her grandmother's life in England after grandma dies. 

The Last Child - Four stars.  I really liked this one.  I started it on Friday and finished it  Saturday night.  Quick, quick read.  And it gets to the point of figuring out who the bad guys are rather quickly, instead of at the end of the book.  I liked that.  But there is still a mystery to find out who killed Johnny's sister.  This was a Vines 'n Spines pick for June by Nicky.  She always picks great books, one of my few five star reads was her pick - The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes.  

Okay, ten books in the last four and a half months and no reviews - bad!  I'll try to be better, but I won't promise anything.  Posting to Twitter now....

True Colors by Kristin Hannah

This is my third Kristin Hannah book.  I like her books because they read very quickly.  This one was about sisters growing up on a Washington horse farm.  One sister was beautiful, one was smart and plump, and one was a peacemaker.  It was a good book, although Firefly Lane is probably my favorite that I have read thus far by KH.  Love, sisterhood and betrayal are three common themes in the book.  Read it if you want a quick, easy read.  Sometimes I wish I had a sister and sometimes I don't.

Here We Go

I was at work today talking about a book I recommended to a co-worker.  She said something to the effect of, "You should start a blog, you always offer such great suggestions."  I took that as a compliment, and now here I sit.

Now what.  

Who, Where and How I find books:

I guess I'll start with where I find the books I read.  I am in a book club called "Vines & Spines."  We meet on a monthly basis, each person picks out a book to read for that month, and hosts the group at their house or another venue to discuss the book. 

Our "book club lead", The Leader, has signed up with publisher's and we now get local books sent to the club.  I think I'm one of the few who has read several of those freebies.  In fact, one of the freebies I had already read on my best Christmas present ever....

My best Christmas present EVER this year was a surprise from my husband - a Kindle.  I am in love with that thing (although the battery life has dramatically decreased in the 8 months since I received it and I never have the wireless on except to download new books, of course!).   I have found books through recommendations on the Kindle.  

I ask friends at work for recommendations, friends from organizations that I'm involved in for recommendations, and my great network of friends both near and far for recommendations.

I look at Amazon for books, and am on Borders and Barnes & Noble's mailing lists. 

When:

I read a lot.  At least three to four books a month, and no, not just the short stories that I read to my 10 month old at night.  If I included those in the mix it would be more like three to four hundred books a month.  I'm trying to instill in him early that reading is a great thing.

I read mostly at night before I go to bed.  If it's a good book I will stay up WAY past my 10:00 bedtime and continue reading.  I read on the weekends when the baby is napping.  That's pretty much it, because not only do I have a baby, I also work full-time. 

What:

What am I reading today.  Well, I will say that I am always reading my all-time favorite book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  I have it on my Kindle, I have the copy I bought the summer before my junior year of high school sitting on my nightstand, and I have another copy of it on my bookshelf in our office, for good measure.  I have read this book no less than 100 times over the last 18 years (yes, that's how long it's been since I was a junior in high school, kind of shocking to write that down).  

Kindle: My Name is Russell Fink by Michael Snyder

This is my second time to read this book, by accident.  I read it in the wee hours of the night when the baby was more of a baby and didn't sleep at all.  I completely forgot what it was about and now that I'm 74% through the book I still don't remember how it ends.  I'll give you my opinion of it when I finish it up, probably tonight or tomorrow night.

I'll leave my first post at that for now.  I feel like it's already WAY to long, but I like to write too.  So here we go, into the land of a blog about books.