Book Club Friday 1.27.12

Happy Friday!  I'm linking up again this week with Book Club Friday.

This week I'm reviewing Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan.

Here's the summary from Goodreads:
One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.

Hilarious, poignant, and deeply insightful, John Green and David Levithan’s collaborative novel is brimming with a double helping of the heart and humor that have won both them both legions of faithful fans.

Lauren reviewed this book on her blog and she loved it, so I decided to check it out.  [Lauren introduced me and Lee to The Hunger Games, so yeah, I trust her judgment!]

I loved this book!  It was really easy to read [I started reading it on Friday and finished it on Sunday] and I thought it had such a good message about all relationships: romantic, friendship, family, pretty much everything.  It's funny and a little sad at times, and I felt like part of me could identify with all the main characters.

I'll definitely be looking for more books by these authors.   

Book Club Friday!

 

I've actually had time to read since I've had a break from school for the past few weeks, so I'm linking up this week for Book Club Friday!

This week I'm sharing The Midwife's Confession by Diane Chamberlain.

Here's the summary from Goodreads:
Dear Anna,
What I have to tell you is difficult to write, but I know it will be far more difficult for you to hear, and I'm so sorry…

The unfinished letter is the only clue Tara and Emerson have to the reason behind their close friend Noelle's suicide. Everything they knew about Noelle—her calling as a midwife, her passion for causes, her love for her friends and family—described a woman who embraced life.Yet there was so much they didn't know.

With the discovery of the letter and its heartbreaking secret, Noelle's friends begin to uncover the truth about this complex woman who touched each of their lives—and the life of a desperate stranger—with love and betrayal, compassion and deceit.

I picked this book because I read The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain over the summer and I LOVED it, and this one had pretty good reviews on Goodreads. I liked this one, but I didn't love it. I kinda had it all figured out about halfway through, so that disappointed me a little. I always have guesses of what's going on when I read books like this, but usually I'm wrong and there's something I never saw coming at the end, but I was right with my guess about this one.

Maybe I should be proud of myself instead of disappointed?

Overall, it was a good book and I'll keep reading other books by her.

I set a goal for myself to read 50 books this year, so we'll see how that works out! I'm on my second book of the year, so I'm on track right now!

Book Club Friday: Children's Book

Happy Friday! Since I'm working my way through the Harry Potter books right now and those really don't need a review, I wanted to post about one of my favorite children's books:

You Are Special by Max Lucado

Have you read this book? It is so sweet! The message is basically that you are special and important to God no matter what others think about you.

My Children's Literature teacher read it to our class last semester and I teared up in class. It's such a sweet, important message.

I bought this book the other day as part of a two-year-old's birthday present. I don't think it's ever to early to start letting him know how special he is :)

It's a children's book but I think I'm going to have to get a copy for myself!

Book Club Friday!

Happy July! I'm linking up again this week for Book Club Friday!

This week I finished Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella.
I was at the library looking for something light and fun to read while I was working at the pool, and this one looked cute.

Here's the synopsis from Goodreads:
When twenty-eight-year-old Lexi Smart wakes up in a London hospital, she’s in for a big surprise. Her teeth are perfect. Her body is toned. Her handbag is Vuitton. Having survived a car accident—in a Mercedes no less—Lexi has lost a big chunk of her memory, three years to be exact, and she’s about to find out just how much things have changed.

Somehow Lexi went from a twenty-five-year-old working girl to a corporate big shot with a sleek new loft, a personal assistant, a carb-free diet, and a set of glamorous new friends. And who is this gorgeous husband—who also happens to be a multimillionaire? With her mind still stuck three years in reverse, Lexi greets this brave new world determined to be the person she…well, seems to be. That is, until an adorably disheveled architect drops the biggest bombshell of all.

Suddenly Lexi is scrambling to catch her balance. Her new life, it turns out, comes complete with secrets, schemes, and intrigue. How on earth did all this happen? Will she ever remember? And what will happen when she does?

With the same wicked humor and delicious charm that have won her millions of devoted fans, Sophie Kinsella, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Shopaholic & Baby, returns with an irresistible new novel and a fresh new heroine who finds herself in a life-changing and utterly hilarious predicament…

I never really got in to the Shopaholic books, so I didn't know if I'd like this one or not. It was pretty cute, though. It won't be topping my favorite books list or anything, but I did enjoy it. It was definitely a good "sit by the pool and relax" kinda book :)

Now I'm trying to get through all the Harry Potter books...I want to read them all and then go see the last movie in the theater. I realize it comes out in two weeks, but Lee challenged me and I obviously accepted. I'm on the second book now and plan to have at least the third one finished by the end of the weekend!

Book Club Friday!

I was so excited when I ran across Book Club Friday last week! I want to read as much as I possibly can before I go back to school in the fall, so I'm always looking for suggestions! I thought I'd link up this week to share about my new favorite book, The Help!
*This is my first time linking up, so I'm sorry if this one's already been done a lot!*

I mentioned it briefly in this post, but I wanted to give a little more detail today.

I had heard so many people talk about how good this book is for a long time before I got a chance to read it. NPR compared the book to To Kill a Mockingbird, which is another book I LOVE. I've been wanting to read it since probably February, but I was really busy with school this past semester, and the only books I had a chance to read were for school [most of them were actually pretty good, but sometimes you just want to read a book of your own choosing, ya know?] so as soon as the semester was over I went and bought this book.

The book is kinda long, but I read it in about a day. I couldn't put it down! I remember telling Lee when I was almost finished that I didn't want it to end. Here's the synopsis from Kathryn Stockett's website:
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

This is absolutely my new favorite book. I don't normally read books more than once, but I definitely think this is one I'll read over and over. Oh, and the movie's coming out in a few months and I can't wait!