Finished #36: The Fault in Our Stars

I finished The Fault in Our Stars by John Green this morning.  This book was both extremely sad yet highly philosophical at the same time.  The book is about 2 teenagers with cancer who meet and fall in love.  They deal with the struggles of cancer and knowing they will die, but seem to have an amazing love and more importantly, friendship, along the way.  The book is filled with witty comments from Hazel, Gus, and Issac.  It is also filled with tons of heartbreaking sadness.  I really enjoyed this story.  I think the meaning I got from it is how we want to be viewed in life, but I suppose it could mean different things to different people.

Up Next:  Tell the Wolves I'm Home

Finished #35: The Lovebird

I just finished The Lovebird by Natalie Brown.  This was a story of Margie, a lonely girl who is lost in the world and eventually becomes part of the HEART Organization to fight for animal rights.  Along the way Margie makes friends and finds love only to end up in trouble.  She then has to start her life over and struggles with some of her important beliefs.

This was a really beautiful story.  While reading I thought it was just okay, but when I finished I was crying my eyes out.  It really made my heart hurt and made me miss Levi.

Up next: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Finished #34: The Phantom Tollbooth

I finished The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster last night.  This is a children's book that I never read but have heard of, so I grabbed it for Mason.  He read it on the way to Wisconsin and said it was really good.
It's the story of a boy, Milo, who is really bored in life and doesn't care about anything.  He finds a tollbooth in his room one day and takes a trip to a faraway land.  The land is full of adventures in wordplay and math quizzes.  I think this book would be great for older kids or younger teens, because it really gets them to use their imaginations and to understand all the word play.  I think the whole point of this book is to get kids out of their boredom and to make them think again.

Next up I'll be reading The Lovebird.  My friend Pam just bought it for me for my birthday.

Finished #33: Wild

I read the book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed while I was in Wisconsin.  This was a really interesting book.  I can't say that I really loved the person that Cheryl was before or even during the trail hike, but I really liked how her hiking trip made her change her life around.  While I found some of the things she did really annoying, it was interesting to get a background on her childhood and early life to see why she needed to take a break from "normal" life.  I'm glad I know a little more about the PCT too.  We sometimes randomly stop on the road when we see a walking trail.  Now I know that if we ever go out west, we should NOT just randomly start walking and think that the PCT would be an okay trail to venture out on.

Now reading: The Phantom Tollbooth (Yes it's a kid's book, but I am loving it so far)