Book 20: Gulliver's Travels

I am starting Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift later today. I really don't know anything about this book. I wanted to read it because it has been mentioned in a lot of other books that I have read recently. My boys also love Jack Black and really want to see the new movie. I told them they have to read the book before we can see the movie, so Levi bought the book a few days ago.

Finished Book 19

I finished The School of Essential Ingredients last night. I didn't really think this book was good or bad, it was just okay. I liked how the story was broken into separate chapters about each character. It kind of gave me a feel for why cooking and food was important to each of the characters. What I didn't really get a feel for was how it came to be a complete story. It just seemed really cheesy (no food pun intended) that all of the characters got a long so well. That rarely happens in real life. I can't imagine taking a cooking class with people and immediately becoming their best friends or life partners. Especially in such a short amount of time. I think I have finally realized that while I find the stories somewhat interesting, I'm just really not a "chic-lit" sort of gal.

240 pages

Book 19: The School of Essential Ingredients

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister is February's book club pick for Lindsey's book club. I don't really know much about this book, but this is what I gather from the cover description. This is the story of a cooking class that meets once a month on Monday nights. The lives of the people in the class begin to intertwine outside of the kitchen. This book has been compared to Like Water for Chocolate which I liked, so I hope it is similar.

Finished Book 18

I finished The Girls from Ames this morning. I think the idea of life long friendships is good, but I couldn't relate to these girls. They are from Ames, but they made it sound like the only thing for kids to do in Iowa is have cornfield keggers. I think the biggest chunk of the book that I didn't like was about their high school years. They not only sounded like a bitchy clique, but they were even horribly mean to one member of their group. If I was Sally, I would never have forgiven the other girls. I did feel sorry for the girls as they got older and faced struggles and tragedy in life. I think I can relate to them more as a wife and mother, but not based on their friendships. I didn't see this as a full group of friendships. To me it seemed more like there were 2 or 3 girls who were really close and then became friends with another 2 or 3 girls and so on. I know they meet every year and are there for each other in hard times, but I just couldn't see the 11 friendships as a whole group.
I did love learning about Jack Trice though. And loved the mention of Taco Time, going to have to make a trip there.

291 pages

Book 18: The Girls from Ames

The Y book club pick for February is The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow. It's the story of 11 childhood friends who grow up in Ames, IA and keep an extraordinary friendship throughout the highlights and low-points in their lives.

Finished Book 17

I finished The Thirteenth Tale last night. This was a really interesting story and I couldn't wait to figure out the end. Usually I can guess what will happen, but this time I really didn't see how Margaret was piecing everything together. I don't know if I wasn't reading closely enough, or if it was just a special sense she had. I ended up really liking this book. Even though I know the ending, I feel like I could read it over again and see the clues come together easier.

406 pages

Book 17: The Thirteenth Tale

I am starting The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield right now. I have heard many great things about this book and have wanted to read it for a while now. I must admit that I had no idea what it was about, I just know it was a popular book club pick and that everyone that I know who has read it has really liked it. It's about an author who decides it is time to write a biography. Lindsey says it's a "ghost story", so I'm really interested now.

Finished Book 16

I finished Bloodroot by Amy Greene last night. The book is broke into 4 parts. The first part is told by Myra's grandmother and a neighbor boy who is in love with Myra. The second part is told by Myra's children, third part is by Myra, and fourth part is by Myra's husband. During the first part of the book I really didn't find the story that interesting. It was talking about family history and how everyone thought Myra had "witches blood" in her. There were interesting details, but I didn't feel like it was much of a story. Once Myra's children started telling the story I really became interested. I got a better feel for what life was like on Bloodroot Mountain. I really liked the third part from Myra's point of view too. Overall, this was a really interesting story. I like how it was broke into different perspectives so that once you got to the end you saw how they all fit together.

291 pages

Book 16: Bloodroot

I went to the library yesterday and they had January's library discussion book. It is Bloodroot by Amy Greene. This story takes place in the Appalachian Mountains. It's about a girl named Myra Lamb and how the lives of all the people around her overlap. I haven't really read a detailed description, but it's supposed to be about how magic, faith, secrets, passion, and loss follow Myra and her family through the generations. This blurb doesn't make it sound that interesting, so I hope I like it when I start reading.

Finished Book 15

I finished The Boy in the Striped Pajamas this afternoon. This book was sad and like all WWII stories, it just made my skin crawl. I still can't believe Nazi camps existed and how badly all the Jewish people were treated. This book was the story of a 9 year old boy named Bruno. His father was a Commandant for Hitler at Auschwitz and Bruno was completely oblivious to what his father's career was. He knew nothing about Hitler, the treatment of Jews, or anything happening in the world outside of his own life. Bruno forms a relationship with a Jewish boy named Shmuel through a fence. Through this friendship, Bruno slowly begins to realize that some people have worse problems than he does.
This book is categorized as Young Adult, and I can see a difference in writing style compared to other WWII books. Even though the writing style was for younger readers, the subject matter was still very powerful. If you like fictional WWII stories, this would be a good book to read. I also want to say that the last paragraph and sentence actually gave me chills.

216 pages

Book 15: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Back to WWII, although I guess Angela's Ashes was kind of WWII related. I will be starting The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne today. I saw this book on a recommended book club list and then noticed that it was also made into a movie. This is the story of a 9 yr old German boy named Bruno. He has the perfect life until his father is promoted to a higher position in the army and the family is forced to move to Auschwitz. Bruno becomes bored in his new surrounding and is curious about people that he sees on the other side of the fence. His father will tell him nothing about these other people, so Bruno goes exploring to find about more about these people. The story sounds very interesting to me, but has gotten mixed reviews on Goodreads, so we'll see....

Finished Book 14

I finally finished Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt last night. This book was really hard for me to get into. I probably had to read 100 pages before I started to find the story interesting. It was a memoir of Frank's life growing up poor in Ireland. His family was poor, father was a drunk, siblings kept dying, other relatives wanted nothing to do with his family, etc. Basically there was nothing good about his life. Just when they thought something good would happen, something else bad happened. It was very sad and I couldn't help but feel sorry for Frank and his brothers. The thing that made me the most upset was that the grandparents and aunt wouldn't help Frank's family.

I can't say that this was one of my favorite books, but I'm glad I read it. It wasn't at all what I expected. I guess from the title I was expecting that the mother, Angela, would die. Even though I thought the book was just okay, I am curious to see what the sequel 'Tis is like.

459 pages

Holy Bible: New International Version

I decided that one of my goals for 2011 will be to read The Bible in one year. I borrowed the New International Version from a friend and will be starting this tonight. I am going to try to follow one of the online plans for reading it, but sometimes I like to read ahead just in case I won't have time in the next few days. I really hope I will be able to stick to this.