The books of July 2011

Seven months gone. Seems way too fast, doesn't it? I saw the last Harry Potter and it was awesome! I also liked Captain America - it was a lot of fun.

Book buying will be more scarce throughout the year with Borders going out of business :( I loved my time working there and I loved shopping there. It's not gone yet, but I'm really going to miss it. I bought the following books this month: Un Amico Italiano: Eat, Pray, Love in Rome by Luca Spaghetti, Overbite by Meg Cabot, and The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure.

I did make a few trips to the local library...something I guess I'll be doing more of without Borders. So, this month I read: The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove by Lauren Kate, Passion by Lauren Kate, The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily by Lauren Willig, Orange In the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman, The Department of Lost and Found by Alison Winn Scotch, Time of My Life by Alison Winn Scotch, The Washingtonienne by Jessica Cutler, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-time Eater by Frank Bruni, Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag by Michael Tonello, and A Hollywood Ending by Robyn Sisman.

The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove was an okay teen book. The main character has little conscious and really, having read the whole book, I can't say that I felt se had earned any sort of redemption. She came from nothing, turned her back on her roots, and lived it up as a spoiled brat. More than anything, this was just an unfortunate tragedy where no one seemed to grow or learn things until it was too late and then you didn't really care about them. Also, I like my teen books a smidge more chaste than this one was. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I really don't like to think of teens that way...even if they are.

Passion was the third in the series of the Fallen novels. This one explains more of the history of the angels and the fall and their fighting to gain control of Luce and her soul. Apparently there's another book to come in the series. I like these books...begrudginly. I didn't mean to like them. They are written about as well as the Twilight series...mostly, there's something about the storyline and the loyalties of the characters that's very intriguing. It's another series that could be seen on the big screen, but probably not as lucrative overall...no sparkley vampires or cool werewolf-like packs...just beautiful, beautiful angels with wings!

Lauren Willig is an author I found by accident. A few years ago, I read a few books by her about a graduate student who went to England to research a spy network working against the French. The books are highly entertaining and take you back to the era using dispatches, letters, and notebooks that the grad student is studying. It helps that her boyfriend is a distant relative of one in the spy network and that his aunt (she owns the archive) was clearly involved as well. The Mischief of the Mistletoe is a short Christmas story made from two characters who are in the books, but never the main characters. Here they get their chance to solve their own spy problem. It's a charming tale, full of comical little intrigues that bring the two together and compel them to stay together throughout the ordeal. The Betrayal of the Blood Lily was another introduction of main characters, these moving the Hellfire Club's intrigue to India through a bad marriage of one of the main characters and the introduction of a few more of the spy ring. The plot is well-written and the twists and turns are fun to follow because while you can tell where the path is going, you occasionally make a wrong turn in your thoughts, much like you're the grad student trying to figure it out as you go. The student in modern times may never finish her dissertation, but her research is certainly entertaining. I've got another of these from the library to read and I hope the author keeps writing them.

Orange Is the New Black was a departure from things I would usually read. I saw it on one of Jen Lancaster's book lists from last year. Piper did some really, really stupid things earlier in her life and ten years later, it all caught up to her. While she'd made a life for herself, she realized that she needed to pay for what she'd done, so she served her time and chronicled it for the rest of us. The women she met in prison were, and this is weird because I didn't expect it, very inspirational. They propped her up when she was down; they took care of each other. It wasn't a good place to be but they made it home (as much as possible) by recreating their sense of family. Together they got through a lot of horrible things. This book portrays something I hope not to experience, but something that I'm glad I took the time to read.

Originally, I was looking for The One That I Want by Alison Winn Scotch...and I still am since it's been checked out every time I've gone to the library. So in the meantime, I read The Department of Lost and Found and Time of My Life. Both were very well-written books that I had trouble putting down. In The Department, Natalie is the main character. She's a work-a-holic for a senator and she develops cancer. Around the time of that little announcement, her boyfriend walks out on her. After some wallowing, she slowly regains her footing in life to find that maybe it was time for some changes anyway. She lost some things and some people, but she found herself and started to take better care of herself. It was really good. In Time of My Life, Jill had a perfect life with a good husband, an adorable little girl, and a crap-ton of issues she's shoved into a tightly closed bag. The bag comes open and one morning she wakes up in her old life, with everything to do over however she pleases. It takes her returning to the past and doing things differently to realize things about herself and her life. Again, this was an entertaining page turner.

The Washingtonienne was just, well, smarmy. The main character cheats on her boyfriend and moves to DC from New York to start over. She lives a life of partying - drinking, drugs, and sex. She takes a job on the Hill and starts a blog to keep her friends apprised of her comings and goings. She juggles men, finds a decent one, and manages to completely mess up her life again. It's possible that she learned something at the end, but it's hard to tell if she really means it. I was pretty much appalled at this girl and felt a little dirty when I was done reading it. She didn't even like herself or what she was doing and yet she wrote it all down for everyone to read. Ugh.

I turned quickly to some non-fiction to cleanse my reading palette. Frank Bruni's Born Round is about his life with food and family. Bruni shares his problems with food, going all the way back to his childhood. His struggles to eat and to be happy are something anyone who has ever yo-yo dieted or made excuses for meals has felt. The increasing pant sizes; the binges; the misery...it's all there. As well as the food. I love how he tells his story. Sometimes, his descriptions of food were too accurate and I would find myself wandering to the kitchen for a snack while I read. He talks about being in Italy and still managing to stay on track...as well as finding happiness while maintaining a decent relationship with food and exercise and family. This book is pretty inspirational without being preachy. Read it when you need a boost.

Bringing Home the Birkin was highly entertaining. I kept laughing and wanting to read it when I should have been doing things like sleeping. Tonello's travels to retrieve the elusive handbags are near insane. At the end of like every chapter I'm thinking, "Hello! It's a freaking BAG" and he's dropping thousands and thousands of dollars on them. It's completely nuts and I loved it. It has some downer moments...and some scary ones, but his descriptions are quite lovely and make you want to experience these places and things yourself...maybe minus the price tags.

Last on the list was A Hollywood Ending. A cute book about an actress who takes off to London to try her hand at Shakespeare in the theater. All of her problems seem light-hearted to us readers and the way out of awkward situations pretty simple. It was a fast read, easy to follow, and generally just a nice way to spend a few hours in the air-conditioning on an extremely hot day. Plus, you can just hear the accents if you ficus hard enough :)

I've got another stack from the library and some books that are calling to me from the night stand. I need to start working on a lot of craft projects too. Let's just hope the weather starts to cool off...I am totally over this whole heat index and sweating thing. Later!

The books of June 2011

Another month down and we're halfway through the year. It's insane how fast it goes! So far summer is ok (although today in particular was ridiculously hot...and still is, but with the air conditioning running, it's not so bad inside)...I've been hanging out with friends, seeing movies, doing crafts...you know, the usual.

I did two more Iron Craft challenges this month: You Are Here and Scan This! I think that brings my total done so far this year to 5. I was hoping to hit 13 by the end of the year since that's a quarter of the challenges.

We're all Snooki to you

I made several cross-stitch gifts...some were QR codes (like the one for the Iron Craft above) and others were fun sayings, like this:

I'm feeling like everyone needs a biscuit...right now!

I also knit myself a pair of wrist warmers and am currently working on finishing up a matching scarf. I realize that it's now July as I write this, but some places, like the movie theater, are always chilly inside.

I didn't buy too many books this month. I got The Host by Stephanie Meyer (out of the bargain bin...score!), The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove by Lauren Kate, Passion by Lauren Kate (third of the Fallen books), Makoto's Cross-Stitch Super Collection by Makoto Oozu, and Cowl Girls: The Neck's Best Thing to Knit by Cathy Carron.

I was feeling the need for books, but not feeling the need for giving up money, so I went to the library in addition to raiding my own shelves and night stand. Overall, in June I read: Under the Blood Red Moon by Mina Hepsen, Linger by Maggie Stiefvater, Tattoos and Tequila: To Hell and Back with One of Rock's Most Notorious Frontmen by Vince Neil and Mike Sager, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson, and in preparation of the July 15th final movie release, I re-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling.

I grabbed the Hepsen book from the library. It was a fluffy, little vampire tale with some twists into Victorian London...and some odd tie-ins to history. It was fast read...something I was able to put down, but still, fairly well done and interesting enough to keep me reading through the whole book.

Linger was just as good as Shiver. For some reason, I don't get into Stiefvater as quickly as some of the other teen series books that I've read. Which makes no sense. Werewolves are something I read about on a fairly regular basis at this point <cough>nerd alert</endcough> but these books move slowly for me. They don't take a lot of time to read, but it's not the first thing I want to do as soon as I get home. But I do know the characters now and am invested enough that I want to read more. The ending for the second book is a sad twist in the tale and I wonder where she's taking the story...huh. Looks like I was intrigued by it...more than I thought. Although maybe the reason I don't think I'm as intrigued is because there's no Jacob whipping his shirt off every other scene :)

Every summer, I like to read a blond celebrity bimbo book. The Cybill Shepherd biography stands out as a pretty good one. I'm sure I'll read more than one, but this month, I took the focus off of the ladies and read the Vince Neil biography. Everything I knew about Motley Crue at this point, I learned from The Dirt (an AWESOME book about the band). I remember reading it a long time ago and thinking that it was weird that the frontman didn't feature prominently in that book. Later I read Tommyland (an AWFUL book on Tommy Lee) and learned pretty much that Tommy likes himself...a lot. I have not read the Nikki Sixx bio. After reading the Vince Neil bio, I gotta say, I am totally rooting for the guy! He has had so many huge ups and downs and still manages to be alive and trying to get through things. He's clearly got a lot of problems, but it seems like he's trying to put the past behind him and I really hope he succeeds. This book was great fun and I'm kind of sad that I got it from the library and had to return it. It's a good conversation piece (be careful how you carry and place the book on the table...he's being a little "cheeky" on the back cover and I had to explain myself /reading choice several times)...and it made me listen to "Dr. Feelgood" for like three days straight once I was done with it.

I finally finished the new Erik Larson. I read it while I was reading these other books. It's a heavy one that feels better if it's broken up by other tales. Hitler...man...that guy was seriously uncool. Reading about his rise to power in the year leading up to WWII was very interesting and disturbing. Like a couple of other Larson books, it's slow reading, possibly because you do know the topic and it is a heavy, complex, sad topic. You wanted the ambassador to do more, but you felt sympathy for him being in this impossible situation and really, what more could he have done before someone decided he and his family were just unnecessary? I did like this book, but it wasn't something I'll talk about a lot because it's just depressing. I do not think it's as good as Devil in the White City, but it's still well done.

Sigh. I so do not want Harry Potter to end. In a bad, bad way. And yet, I'm so excited to see the movie that I took the whole day off from work so that I can see it the day it releases. No, I'm not doing the midnight show...I enjoy sleeping too much for that...but I will see it early the first day...and possibly more than once. My roommate realized she hadn't seen the first half of the movie, so we watched it last Saturday night. That prompted me to re-read the Deathly Hallows last Sunday. I just sat and read. And reminded myself of the story and tried to gauge my crying/sobbing tendencies because I'm sure it'll be much worse watching it on the screen...it always is. Also, I'd completely forgotten about (blocked from memory on purpose) the spiders joining the fight. SHUDDER! I was hoping maybe it would be one of the things they would cut from the movie, but no-o-o-o-o. I watched the preview and there they were, crawling in the background on their creepy, ginormous legs. Ugh! It won't keep me from the theater, but it will keep me form looking at the screen during a crucial part or two :\

It's time to continue cleaning and start cooking. Hope everyone has a great July 4th!