Monday, January 4, 2016

Every You, Every Me: a brief review

taken from Goodreads.com
My first book of the new year is one to cross off the 2016 list. I'm glad I can cross it off the list because goodNESS this book stunk. The plot was okay enough, but the way Levithan chose to wrote it just about made me insane. It was very experimental; his friend would send him a picture and he would write some of a book based on the picture, and then his friend would send him another picture and he would write some more. His friend didn't read any of what he was writing and he would never know what pictures were coming next. Kind of a cool concept, except that it just really didn't work out too well. It was infuriatingly ambiguous and vague, and gave no information to the reader until about 90% through. Also, most annoying of all, was his use of the strikethrough, which he used entirely too much and throughout the whole book, and I for one never did really figure out what his intended purpose was for it. I'm a little bummed this was my first ever Levithan book, because I've heard good things about him but this one makes me want to take a while to read another.

Here's my updated 2016 reading goals list now:
  • For the Love, by Jen Hatmaker
  • Good News for Weary Women, by Elyse Fitzpatrick
  • Bittersweet, by Shauna Niequist
  • Bread & Wine, by Shauna Niequist
  • Parenting with Scripture, by Kara Durbin
  • Love and Respect, by Emerson Eggerichs
  • The Excellent Wife, by Martha Peace
  • The Underdogs, by Markus Zusak
  • Every You, Every Me, by David Levithan
  • Every Day, by David Levithan
  • We Were Liars, by E. Lockhart
  • Reality Boy, by AS King
  • Forgive me Leonard Peacock, by Matthew Quick
  • Lindsey Lost, by Suzanne Marie Phillips 
  • Belle Porter series
  • To All the Boys I've Loved Before, by Jenny Han
  • Odds of Getting Even, by Sheila Turnage
  • Attachments, by Rainbow Rowell

Friday, January 1, 2016

Recap of 2015 (books, goals, etc.)

Well, 2015 is officially done. It's been a crazy year, but a pretty huge one for our family and also for me personally. I decided to set a handful of goals for myself this year, and although I can't say that I completely conquered and mastered all of them, I did work on all of them. I improved and grew in all of them (well, except for the sewing one. I still can't sew.) and that is important to me. I'm not sure if I will ever be able to say that I completely conquered any of these, because they're all about growth and maturing anyway, but it's exciting to me that I put genuine effort in and can see real results for each of them (except the sewing...). Here were my non-book related goals for 2015:

  • get the exercise routine I didn't make happen in 2014
  • get into a better place with the dogs
  • redo entire wardrobe
  • rediscover Jesus
  • sewing basics from Mrs. Mayhew
  • clean the shower
I think I can safely say that, after two years in a row of having "sewing basics from Mrs. Mayhew" on my goal list, it's not going to happen. It might, someday, on accident, but I'm not going to put it on my list again. I clearly don't care all that much about learning how to sew. But I did clean out my clothes and start building my wardrobe back up again, focusing on what actually fits and what I feel comfortable in. I did have a lot of ups and downs spiritually this year, but I discovered several different ways to get in the Word even if its just for a few minutes each day. I do still get frustrated with the dogs and the issues they create, but my relationship with them is night and day better than it was a year ago. I don't clean the shower as often as I probably should...but I AM actually cleaning it occasionally so there's growth there too. And my exercise has come in and out in spurts as I've learned what works for me, but I've landed pretty solidly into a routine that's helpful, consistent, and that I'm loving (and I have the extra motivation of working hard to lose some weight, which is going well!). All in all, I can look at that list and feel comfort and peace rather than anxiety and guilt for not following through. I honestly feel like growth happened in all of those, and that's a great feeling (...except for sewing).

Now here comes the crazy part. When I started 2015, I had an almost three month old baby and I felt completely underwater with the house and the dogs and my own cleanliness and nursing and sleep schedules, etc. etc. I knew I wanted to read some books in the new year, but I had absolutely no idea what realistic expectations were or should be when coming up with a number. So instead of a set number goal, I made a small list of books that I'd wanted to read for a long time and just hadn't gotten around to yet. I thought that if I read those fifteen or so books by the end of the year then I'd be more than content. Well...I read those, and then many many more. I blew my reading goals right out of the water, almost completely because I started listening to audiobooks. There's no way I would have been able to read anywhere near as many books as I did this year without audiobooks. I highly recommend them! I will say though, that I think my audiobook days are on hold for a while, since my little baby ears are getting older and more aware (and more picky...she only wants Veggie Tales from my phone playing all day every day, not books read aloud). But some of my goals for this year address that, in an effort to keep the reading going strong. I'll get to that in a minute though. Here's the list of all the books I read this year. (For the sake of my sanity, I'm not going to link them all to my blog posts, mostly because that would take me the rest of the day. Just look at my Book Reviews page for all the links.)
  1.  Yes Please, by Amy Poehler
  2. Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
  3. Serena, by Ron Rash
  4. Harry Potter #3, by JK Rowling
  5. The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion
  6. Harry Potter #4, by JK Rowling
  7. Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
  8. Harry Potter #5, by JK Rowling
  9. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, by Mindy Kaling
  10. Eleanor and Park, by Rainbow Rowell
  11. Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
  12. Harry Potter #6, by JK Rowling
  13. Harry Potter #7, by JK Rowling
  14. A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby
  15. Through Painted Deserts, by Donald Miller
  16. Bud, Not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis
  17. The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins
  18. Bossypants, by Tina Fey
  19. The Best Yes, by Lisa Terkeurst
  20. House of Hades, by Rick Riordan
  21. When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead
  22. Crash, by Jerry Spinelli
  23. Monster, by Walter Dean Myers
  24.  The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
  25. Simplify, by Bill Hybels
  26. Still Alice, by Lisa Genova
  27. Al Capone Does My Shirts, by Gennifer Choldenko
  28. This is Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Topper
  29. Designed to be His Help Meet, by Debi Pearl
  30. Wonder, by RJ Palacio
  31. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (reread)
  32. Night, by Elie Wiesel
  33. Half Broke Horses, by Jeannette Walls
  34. Cold Tangerines, by Shauna Niequist 
  35. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini
  36. Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage
  37. His Needs, Her Needs, by Willard Harley
  38. My Heart's at Home, by Jill Savage
  39. The Impossible Knife of Memory, by Laurie Halse Anderson
  40. Diary of Anne Frank, by Anne Frank
  41. The Silver Star, by Jeannette Walls
  42. Silas Marner, by George Elliot
  43. The Sky is Everywhere, by Jandy Nelson
  44. Al Capone Shines my Shoes, by Gennifer Choldenko
  45. Landline, by Rainbow Rowell
  46. Isla and the Happily Ever After, by Stephanie Perkins
  47. Okay for Now, by Gary Schmidt (reread)
  48. Al Capone Does my Homework, by Gennifer Choldenko
  49. Liar & Spy, by Rebecca Stead
  50. Ghosts of Tupelo Landing, by Sheila Turnage
  51. In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan
  52. The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin
  53. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
  54. No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy
  55. The Martian, by Andy Weir
  56. Killing Kennedy, by Bill O'Reilly
  57. The Rosie Effect, by Graeme Simsion
  58. And the Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini
  59. Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee
  60. Copper Sun, by Sharon Draper
  61. Room, by Emma Donoghue
  62. Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates
  63. Killing Lincoln, by Bill O'Reilly
  64. Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper
  65. I am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak
  66. First Boy, by Gary Schmidt
  67. Orbiting Jupiter, by Gary Schmidt
  68. 7, by Jen Hatmaker
  69. Let it Snow, by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
I know. It kills me I didn't get to 70 books too. Maybe next year.

Speaking of next year, I've come up with a similar plan as far as goals go. A short personal list for my life, and a short book list that I'm hoping to surpass by lots. Things are changing in the reading department once again, with (what I'm assuming to be) the absence of audiobooks, but one of my personal goals is much less television and more reading instead. We created a playroom that's separate from the TV room this week, and I have already read and/or completed three and a half books since then. And the TV hasn't been on once other than when JT has been home. I'm thinking that will prove to be incredibly helpful with a lot of my goals. :) Without further ado, here's my personal and reading goals for 2016:

Personal Goals:
  • Get dressed/ready for the day by 9 am: When I was in the middle of thinking of goals one day last week, I realized it was 3 in the afternoon and I hadn't brushed my teeth. #lifeofastayathomemom Well no more. Because that's just silly. 
  •  Exercise 5 times a week: Thanks to my new Christmas present the Fitbit and my tendencies toward obsessiveness, I've exercised every day this week already (which, if you're counting, is actually six, not five). I'm hoping that this magical new combination of the treadmill and the Fitbit and the Kindle that sits comfortably on the treadmill, this one will be a matter of maintaining throughout the year rather than the creation of a whole new goal.
  •  Less TV, more books: Fairly self-explanatory. I watch way too much TV, and that should probably stop. It's easy, it's handy, and it's brainless. I am capable of doing more with my days than watching How I Met Your Mother all the way through for the sixth time.
  • Less noise, more quiet: I love background noise. Whether it's music or podcasts or audiobooks or Netflix, I always have something playing. That should probably be lessened too...I think I'm finally ready to learn how to just have quiet. 
  • More intentionality with friends: This one's vague, as a lot of these are, but I'm that introvert who has good friends and gets sad she never sees them instead of just reaching out and inviting them for a walk or a cup of coffee or lunch. I've always been that friend, and I'd like to keep pushing myself to initiate a little more, and to also make my time with friends a little less about me and a lot more about them.   
  • Monthly dates with JT: This unfortunately won't be possible every month (for example, he will be spending a lot of the summer in Florida), but we really do want to make this a priority when we are physically able. 
  • Weekly dates with Charlotte: I don't mean for this to be anything crazy or complicated or stressful, but just that I try to do one fun, intentional, different-than-the-norm thing with Charlotte every week. 
Reading Goals:
  • For the Love, by Jen Hatmaker
  • Good News for Weary Women, by Elyse Fitzpatrick
  • Bittersweet, by Shauna Niequist
  • Bread & Wine, by Shauna Niequist
  • Parenting with Scripture, by Kara Durbin
  • Love and Respect, by Emerson Eggerichs
  • The Excellent Wife, by Martha Peace
  • The Underdogs, by Markus Zusak
  • Every You, Every Me, by David Levithan
  • Every Day, by David Levithan
  • We Were Liars, by E. Lockhart
  • Reality Boy, by AS King
  • Forgive me Leonard Peacock, by Matthew Quick
  • Lindsey Lost, by Suzanne Marie Phillips 
  • Belle Porter series
  • To All the Boys I've Loved Before, by Jenny Han
  • Odds of Getting Even, by Sheila Turnage
  • Attachments, by Rainbow Rowell
It's not a huge list, once again, but it's just the ones that I want to make sure I read this year. Just like last year, I'm not requiring of myself that I read them in this order or that I even finish this list before I read other books not on the list. Just want to make sure that at the end of 2016, all of these are crossed off. (For those who are curious, this is a mix of books that I genuinely want to read because I've heard they're good or are by authors I love...and books that got thrown into my cart as impulse buys at the Green Valley Book Fair this summer that I now feel morally obligated to read but only have mild interest in. So that should be interesting.) 

It's been a great year, for books and for goals. I'm excited for this new one. 


The rest of the books...

Hey friends. In an end of the year whirlwind, I finished a couple books before 2015 came to a close. Here are the reviews (end of the year thoughts and recap in the next post).

taken from Goodreads.com
You remember a couple days ago when I reviewed Gary Schmidt's book First Boy and said I felt kind of "eh" about it? And I said that I was really bummed about the idea of feeling "eh" about one of Gary's books because Gary is kind of my favorite of all time? Well this book is why he's my favorite of all time. Orbiting Jupiter is Gary's newest book - came out in October - and praise the Lord my dad had knee surgery so he could be laid up on the couch browsing Kindle options and find it (I'm not really thankful my dad had to have knee surgery, but you know what I mean). This book...whew. It's a tough subject matter, like most of Gary's books, but he handles it with ease and an incredible talent and smiles and tears (lots of tears) just like most of the rest of his books. Yes, it's a book about an eighth grade boy who has a child and has just been released from jail, but you need to read this book. Read this book, but have an entire box of tissues ready.

taken from Goodreads.com
I've been reading this book since about September. It was one of those that I started reading with a friend for us to meet regularly and discuss together, but life got busy and we don't live near each other so huge gaps of time would pass before I'd read a chapter or two and then forget about it for another huge gap of time. But I saw the end of the year approaching and decided it would only be fair to Jen if I finally finished this book. It was really good! Typical Jen with lots of laughs, lots of conviction, lots of tears (there's a couple pages at the end where she talks in detail about the adoption of her two little Ethiopian kids...cried like a baby), and lots of contemplation. It's the kind of book where some of it will really hit home because of how much you relate to her struggles, and some probably won't resonate as much, but it's still worth it. I definitely recommend it.

taken from Goodreads.com
In an effort to squeeze out as many books as possible before 2015 ended, I zoomed through this one this week. I chose it mostly because it was already on my kindle from when I'd bought it a while ago. It's three separate mini-books, written by three different YA authors, that all kind of connect and intersect with each other. It's simple, easy YA rom-com Christmas lit, and it was a really easy one to knock out in a couple days. I will say that in my personal opinion, the first two stories were really good and the third one kind of annoyed me, but it all wrapped up really nicely in the end.

Monday, December 28, 2015

Catching up on book reviews

Whew. Once again, it's been a while since I've blogged. I haven't done a ton of reading in that time, but I have finished a handful and am going to catch up on the reviews in one post. (I just looked back at my last post and am noticing a theme.)

taken from Goodreads.com
I've read quite a bit of Sharon Draper's books before (here, here, and three others I read before I blogged), and always have mixed feelings about them. This one was probably in my top two. It's about a young girl with cerebral palsy so severe she cannot walk or talk. Everyone around her thinks she is also mentally retarded as well, and she spends most of her life unable to defend or explain herself. This one was good, and also genuinely hard to read at times because of the content; I can't imagine being in her place. It's a good YA choice, especially for teaching about people who are different than us.

taken from Goodreads.com

I can't really say much about this one without giving a lot away, but I will say that I definitely recommend it. Zusak, also the author of The Book Thief, is one of my new favorites. The writing is beautiful, the dialogue is hilarious, and the characters are incredibly endearing. He also keeps you guessing and confused as you try to figure things out, which is fun. I can't wait to read the rest of his books.

taken from Goodreads.com
I'm really bummed to have to write what I'm about to write, but I just didn't love this book. I love Gary Schmidt...my favorite ever book in the whole world is Okay for Now, and some others that are very high on the list are Trouble and Lizzie Bright. This man is everything I want to be in a writer. This book was pretty much "eh" though. Oh well. I guess everyone's allowed a couple of bummers in their career.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Catch up

So remember that time I used to write reviews on all the books I read? And then suddenly I have four that I've read but haven't written about. Whoops. So these will be short and sweet.

taken from Goodreads.com
I've read quite a bit of Sharon Draper, and I've had mixed feelings about all of her books. They all tend to handle hardcore plot lines with Remember the Titans-type dialogue. I appreciate the PG-rating, but sometimes it just comes off as a little corny. There is a fair amount of that in this book too, but I think it's her best one. This story follows a slave from her village in Africa, to the ship that takes her across the ocean to America, to the plantation her new masters own, and then beyond. It's a heartbreaking, sweet, and interesting look at slavery in America. 

taken from Goodreads.com
I grabbed this book up when I saw a trailer for the upcoming movie. I really enjoyed it and thought it was incredibly interesting and well-written, even though it also terrified me (it was like a 9 hour episode of Law and Order: SVU. I've stopped watching SVU since Charlotte was born for a reason). I will say, though, that I think I only liked it as much as I did because I listened to it on audiobook. I think if I'd read it in actual book form, I would have been driven insane by the five-year-old narrator. But since I listened to it and heard a five-year-old voice reading the five-year-old words, it was perfectly fine. So I recommend the audiobook.

taken from Goodreads.com
I can't remember why I put this book on my list, but oh well. I liked it, despite the fact that it's about a mostly-failing marriage and that it's suuuuuuper depressing. There were elements of it, though, that were incredibly convicting and cause for reflection. Marriage is hard, and there's fighting, and listening to these two people fight and yell at each other was horrible...mostly because there were a couple of times where the things they were yelling sounded familiar. And that, friends, is not good. So I'm thankful for this depressing book, because good gracious, the last thing I want is to be able to relate to any of the crazies in this plot. (But all of that being said, it's a good read. Not a favorite or anything, but interesting.)

taken from Goodreads.com
I read Killing Kennedy a while ago, and loved it. This one, though, not as much. It was interesting, but it had a LOT of Civil War specifics and battle strategy, and I just cannot handle books about war (movies, yes...books, no). And the rest of it just wasn't nearly as interesting as Kennedy, I don't think. It was fine, just didn't love it as much.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Go Set a Watchman: a brief review

taken from Goodreads.com
The world just about shut down this summer when Harper Lee's previously unheard of second novel was released. As a big To Kill a Mockingbird fan, I was obviously excited....but also a little skeptical about some of the circumstances surrounding the release (it just didn't make a lot of sense, did it?). I didn't want to rush out and buy it, but borrowing it from the library sounded good. An audiobook read by Reese Witherspoon didn't hurt either. My verdict: it's good! I enjoyed it a lot. (For the record, I wasn't really skeptical about whether it would be good, just whether Lee really wanted it released after all these years when she's in her 90s.) It was a little different at the beginning because so many characters have changed and/or are gone, but overall I really did like it. I also appreciated the interesting discussions about race...although there was a huge uproar when it first came out because "Atticus is a racist!", I think I tried to come into the book with open eyes, and what I saw was a legitimate and difficult look at race. I don't think any of the characters come out at the end perfect, and no one side is absolutely right. I think Lee did a great job of showing that there's more than one view to the topic, and that everyone has a different reason for feeling the way they do. I might still have doubts about its publication, but I can say that I recommend the read.

And the Mountains Echoed: a brief review

taken from barnesandnoble.com
Several years ago, I read Hosseini's The Kite Runner, and enjoyed it as much as the next guy (or slightly less, maybe; I enjoyed it, but it wasn't my absolute favorite). But then more recently I listened to the audiobook version of his second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and loved it to pieces. I was excited, obviously, to snatch his third book, And the Mountains Echoed, on audiobook too. But I had to restart this book four separate times because I was so confused. I will say, though, that I think this is only because I was listening to it on audiobook while trying to cook dinner and keep dogs out of the kitchen and appease my screaming one-year-old who was clinging to my leg. This book has lots of different characters and lots of different story lines (that do connect to each other) and lots of different places/times in history. There's a fair amount to pay attention to, but once I was able to focus and make sure I was working hard to keep everything straight, it started getting a lot easier to remember all those connections. And then I fell in love with this book. It is brilliantly beautiful, and the web Hosseini weaves of family generations, relationships, and consequences is perfect. I loved this book...I think I do still love A Thousand Splendid Suns slightly more, but I really loved this book. It's beautiful, heartbreaking, and full of redemption. So one more time I'll say it: read Hosseini's books.