Read any good books lately?

I love to read.
I always have a book going and I take that book with me everywhere.  You just never know when you might have a few minutes and need it!
I am a little OCD about the books I read too.  I record all the books I have read in 2 places.  A notebook in my nightstand and on Goodreads.com 
I love Goodreads...I highly suggest you try it out.  You can find recommendations, reviews, ratings on just about any book you might want to read, keep track of books you have read and ones that you want to read and write your own reviews for your favs and not favs.  Love it.  Anyways...
 
Here are a few that I have read and enjoyed.

A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff
 
Big Stone Gap (entire series) by Adriana Trigiani

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (the book was soooo much better than the movie)
 
Fairytale Interrupted by Rosemarie Terenzio
 
Night Road by Kristin Hannah


As I said, I really love to read but there have been a few books recently that I didn't like and I can get pretty irritated when this happens.
I usually have 1 of 3 ways when I finish a book:
1. Good book, fine now lets move on...no big impact at all
2. NOOOO don't end!  I want it to continue and end up doing so in my head or writing it down
OR
3. Are kidding me???  You're going to end it like that?

One that I read recently that fell into category #3...
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 
 
A lot of people are really loving this book right now and I must say I did not.  I did enjoy most of it but the ending just ruined it for me...just not how I saw it happening.  I read that last page, realized that was it, closed the book and was so irritated.  I couldn't let it go.  I just kept thinking about how I had just spent hours reading this book, enjoying most of it and now am so irritated.  Not OK!  That defeats the purpose. 

I decided I needed to figure out why I was so irritated because the whole point in reading for me is enjoyment, pleasure and a sense of escape.  I think I figured it out...it was all because there was no "happy ending".  I was a little disappointed with myself.  That seems so superficial, so shallow.  Now lets me clear...there have been a few that I really enjoyed that didn't end up happy but I think I went into it knowing that...historical fiction or non-fiction books about a time in history and I know how it ends up.  But it seems the difference is that those books still focus on the positive even in a very bad situation.


Well...I will keep reading and enjoying.  I will no doubt read some duds but its so fun knowing that the next one might make such an impression on me that I want to write more so it can continue is exciting!

What have you read recently that you loved?
Leave me a comment...maybe it will end in my "to-read" category on Goodreads!

Happy Tuesday!

Thankful Thursday...

I hope you are having a great week.
All is good here.  Not too much is going on this week...Oh except for my TV diet.  Yes, it's been 4 days since I turned on the TV and I am doing fine.  Almost 2 books down!

Back to the main point.

I am Thankful today for...
my first grade teacher, Mrs. Cleminger, for teaching me to read
authors who write good books
the library
a good comfy reading chair
a  warm lap blanket
a fresh cup of coffee
quiet time!

My spot!

Do yourself a big favor, just for one day, turn off the TV or computer, go to your library, get a book, grab a cup of coffee, sit in your favorite spot and let yourself get lost in reading wonderland!

You can thank me later! 

What are you thankful for today?!  Leave a comment below!

TV or not TV?!

I think I have a problem...turning off the TV 

Here's the thing...I love to read books.  There is nothing better than a great book.  One that can make you think about life or bring you to tears or make you smile and laugh.  I love a good book!!

But...even when I have a good book to read and am really enjoying it, I will turn on the TV.  I will waste so much time just watching needless stuff.  It's really bad...it's crazy.

It all started this morning, I was walking around the library gathering books that I wanted and thinking "I shouldn't take too many because I will never read them all in the amount of time the library lets me keep them".  Then I thought, "well that's only because you watch TV too much".  Oh...sometimes those little men (lil' good guy-lil' bad guy) on your shoulder really point out important things.

So I can to the only rational decision...
I am turning off the "tube". 

For one week, I am going to turn it off and read.  All week.  Just read.  I want to see how quickly I can get through a stack of books.  The TV is an amazingly addictive, evil, little thing.  I have known this forever but it's hitting me how much time I just waste.  I limit it for my kiddos...why not myself.  I am the one with the problem, not them.

Now there are my favorite shows that I really enjoy but with the internet and now our Hulu, I can catch up on just about anything and do it at my leisure.
This will be good.  I need this.  I will survive.  

So here is my goodie bag of books!!!

Source: amazon.com via Alicia on Pinterest

"The Best of Me" by Nicholas Sparks

Source: google.com via Alicia on Pinterest

"Fly Away Home" by Jennifer Weiner

Source: google.com via Alicia on Pinterest

"The Blue Bistro" by Elin Hilderbrand

Source: goodreads.com via Alicia on Pinterest

"The Family Fortune" by Laurie Horowitz
and...

Source: amazon.com via Alicia on Pinterest

"Silver Girl" by Elin Hilderbrand

They all look good right?  It's crazy because I really want to read all of them but I am already missing the stupid TV.
Ugh...I sooooo need to do this...but why is it so hard?  I guess it's hard to do the best thing sometimes.

So next Monday I will fill you in on how I survived Reading week.
I also need to stop blabbing on this post and stop surfing the internet.  Another one of my big time wasters!

Oh wait...Just remembered...can I watch KU get their butts kicked tonight by Kentucky?  That doesn't count right?!
Oh man...well, Good Luck Kentucky!  You aren't my wildcats but mine aren't the ones playing KU!

Books, Books, Books!!!

I love Books!  Do you love books?  I always have a book I am reading.  I carry a book with me wherever I go...you never know when I might be sitting somewhere waiting for someone or something and have a few minutes to catch a few more pages.  Some might say that I am escaping reality a bit and they might be right...who cares?!   
A couple years ago, I started to write down all the books I read.  If you are anything like me, I forget what I have read and what a book was about (I call it "mommy memory").  Once I start a new one I forget a lot of the details of the last one only because I get so in the next.  Because of my "mommy memory" I started keeping a little journal where I write down the books I have completed, the author and a brief summary of the plot.  This helps...a lot.  I also started using a great website called goodreads.com...I highly recommend it...helps keep track of book you have read, books you want to read and books you are currently reading, and recommends great new books to read.  You can also link up through facebook, find your friends and send out your own recommendations, do your own review of a book, and set reading goals.  I am happy to say through goodreads.com I set a reading goal of 15 books for 2011...I just completed my goal!  This seems quite exciting to me as I have 3 kiddos and love to watch tv...this can cause issues with getting books completed but I did it!  Yea me!
   
Here is my most recent favorite...I just finished this book today...A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff. You can check out my other recent books (some good, some bad) with the little widget on the right side of my blog...just scroll down a bit and you will see it...maybe they will be one of your favorites.  You can read about it here and then maybe sign up for your own Goodreads account.  It's so worth it! 

I also must say that I LOVE the library.  This has been an acquired love...I used to love Barnes&Noble but when things got a bit tough financially for our family I couldn't afford to buy books like I used to.  I knew I still needed/wanted to read so I had to use the library.  Thank goodness for the establishment of libraries!  I still go to B&N but for a whole different reason (to their dismay)...I go there when I need to run away (all you moms understand this), get my Starbucks Venti Skinny Caramel Machiatto, grab my notebook out of my bag and browse.  When I find a book I want to read I write it down along with the authors name.  I run home, check the library's online catalog and find out whether they have the book and grab it up if they do!  It's like finding a treasure!  The other great thing about the library...books are due by a specific time...you must get them done an turn them back in.  If you have too have kiddos and like to watch tv, this due date can be very motivational. 
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!! 

So the kiddos and I are headed to the library in just a bit with my Mom In Law (cookies, milk and tea to follow at Baba's!).  This makes for a good day...I have 3 kiddos who love to read nearly as much as I and love to get new books.  Off we go...!

An amazing, unimaginable book...

I am not usually so serious but as this is pretty much my journal/diary of my days, I had to write my feelings about a book I just finished...a book about the Holocaust.  

My we never forget...National Days of Remembrance April 11-18, 2010

Night by Elie Wiesel

How does one describe something so unimaginable?  How can someone live with those memories daily?  How can someone who has lived through this not be filled with hate?  How can this happen? 

A prize of a book, a prize of a man, a hero in many ways. 

I remember going to Isreal as a child. On one of the days, our tour bus stopped at a museum but my 2 friends and I, who were only in 2nd and 3rd grade at the time, were not allowed to go in.  I don't remember questioning "why not?"...maybe I had some sense of what they were going to see...the actual evil of man.  I now know why, I would never have understood what I was actually seeing.  I still don't understand.  I will never be able to understand.   

I LOVE to read!

I always have a book (or two!) that I am reading...I don't go to bed without my book, I don't get up and go downstairs in the morning without my book, I don't leave the house without my book because who knows when I might find a moment when I am waiting for someone/thing or just a moment of peace and solitude where I can sit and enjoy.  It's amazing how completely refreshing and totally relaxing a few stolen moments to myself and my book can be. 

I love all kinds of fiction!  Yesterday I started reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  It's already great and I'm only in chapter 1.  I just finished Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Wears Prada...so fun (the movie is good too!).  There are some that I have read and instantly became a favorite like Adriana Trigiani's Big Stone Gap series.  I loved every minute with all 3 books.  I truly enjoyed Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind.  It's a big commitment but such a classic.

Some of my favorite authors...Kristin Hannah (Firefly Lane was great!), Elin Hilderbrand (Barefoot-great book too!), Jennifer Weiner (Best Friends Forever), Jane Green (The Beach House), Lois Battle (Bed and Breakfast) and Elizabeth Berg (can't wait to read Home Safe)!

One of my favorite "moms-night out" activities is go (by myself) to B&N, grab a decaf and just wander the aisles.  I have a little notepad I take with me and I write down all the books/authors that I am interested in reading.  I then either go online to my library and reserve them right away or go wander my library in person!  I'm sure that is not B&N's idea of a good night but every once in a while I do find a book I can't live without so they get a little bit of my $. 


Here are some next-ups on my list...The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, The Buernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (too long but hopefully good), Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg, True Colors by Kristin Hannah and Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout.

There are so many more great books to read...it's truly never ending and that is what I probably love the most...I can always count on having a great book to enjoy.  The hardest part...when the book ends and it feels as though you will never find another that you enjoy so much and then you magically do and the cycle goes on and on!

Happy Friday everyone and send me your favorites books...I always need more to add to the list!!!  

I so love to read!