School's Out Forever

School's Out - Forever by James Patterson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What I liked: This book jumped right into the action and didn't stop. The author didn't waste any time with back story.

What I didn't like: Plot seemed a little vague again. There seemed to be no resolution to the story. More questions than answers.

Final Thoughts: I continue to look forward to finishing this series. The characters are great, the action is great, just waiting for the plot to come together.

Pub. Date: May 2006
Series: Maximum Ride Book 2

Synopsis: Fourteen-year-old Maximum Ride and the other members of the "Flock"--Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman and Angel--are just like ordinary kids--only they have wings and can fly. It seems like a dream come true--except that they're being hunted by half-human, half-wolf "Erasers" who can fly, too.
In Book 2 of the series, the Flock members are taken under the wing of an FBI agent and try to live "normal" lives by going to school, making friends--and continuing their relentless search for their parents. But the Erasers return, forcing the Flock to abandon their search and make their escape once again. The voice inside Max's head keeps telling her that it's up to her to save the world, but this is especially challenging to do when she is faced with her ultimate match: a newer and better version of herself, Maximum Ride II. Max's heart-stopping quest to investigate the mind-blowing mystery of her ultimate destiny continues in the scariest, strangest, and funniest James Patterson novel yet.

Recommended Reading:
Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson
The Angel Experiment by James Patterson
The Final Warning by James Patterson
Max by James Patterson
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

Eat Pray Love

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

What I liked: Parts of this book read like talking to a good friend. Parts were funny and honest and didn't feel contrived for plot or dramatic affect.

What I didn't like: Quite honestly, I felt a lot of things about this book were construed together too perfectly to be a "real" story. It wore me out and wore on and on at points when it just should have died. Who the hell gets to have a mental breakdown AND a happy ending? There were also chapters that I felt were created (history of rome 101, where gurus come from and Bali Realty for Dummies to name a few) just to fill out the numbers. They were boring and added no context to the story.

Final Thoughts: This book did not live up to the hype for me.

Published Date: February 2006

Synopsis: The celebrated author of The Last American Man creates an irresistible, candid, and eloquent account of her pursuit of worldly pleasure and spiritual devotion.

By the time she turned thirty, Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern, educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want—a husband, a house in the country, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love and the complete eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be.

To recover from all of this, Gilbert took a radical step. In order to give herself the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her belongings, quit her job, left her loved ones behind and undertook a year-long journey around the world, all alone. Eat, Pray, Love is the chronicle of that year. Gilbert's aim was to visit three places where she could examine one aspect of her own nature, set against the backdrop of a culture that has traditionally done that one thing very well. In Italy, she studied the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the twenty-three happiest pounds of her life. India was for the art of devotion, where, with the help of a native guru and a surprisingly wise Texan, she embarked on four months of austere spiritual exploration. Finally, in Indonesia, she sought her ultimate goal: balance—namely, how to somehow build a life of equilibrium between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. Looking for these answers on the island of Bali, she became the pupil of an elderly, ninth-generation medicine man and also fell in love in the very best way—unexpectedly.

A memoir of self-discovery, Eat, Pray, Love is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment. It is also about the adventures that can transpire when a woman stops trying to live in imitation of society's ideals. This is a story certain to touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change.

Recommended Reading
Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
One Day by David Nicholls
Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz
Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen [unabridged audiobook] [NOOKbook]

One of THOSE Books

I'm trying to work my way through Eat Pray Love but it isn't easy. It's one of THOSE books. A book that resonates so closely with my own life, that I find myself nodding my head thinking "been there done that" at every page.

The author was very close to the age I was at when my 'mid-life crisis' struck me. I didn't runaway to travel the world the way that she did, but I have had to find my way through what my choices had made my life had made me. We both struggled through depression to find what brings us pleasure in life, slogged through the demands of the modern world to find a spiritual connection - to see the bigger picture of the world we live in, and finally to find love in ourself. For ourself just as we are and for those we touch in life.

And that's were the similarities end. The author leads a charmed life: already an accomplished world traveler, seemingly set financially, able to make friends and surrounded by an abundance of them... I dread finishing this book. I just know the author's ending is going to be so much better than mine. (Considering that I'm nursing the Mother of All Broken Hearts, a horror novel would end better than my life.)

But I can't stop reading. This book is just so well written. It's funny and smart and moving. I dread picking it up, but struggle to put it down when I do. I'm torn between thankfulness that vacation with The Spawn and The Diva has kept me too busy to read, and being upset by the interrupted reading time.

I'm having a serious love/hate relationship with this book.

Traveling Mercies

Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What I liked: This was the message I was missing in Grace (Eventually). Anne Lamott's stories of faith and life are enduring and uplifting.

What I didn't like: It started out as more of a memoir of how not to live your life before it settled in to the inspirational stories and moments of Lamott's current life. Once I got past the "this is who I am and how I got here" section, the rest of the book was great.

Final thoughts: Lamott's stories continue to entertain and fill my well. I've enjoyed her stories and found comfort to know that we are not walking through this life alone. Sometimes God comes in a bag of dimes, the love of a child or the loss of a friend.

Pub. Date: 02/28/2000

Synopsis: Anne Lamott claims the two best prayers she knows are: "Help me, help me, help me" and "Thank you, thank you, thank you." She has a friend whose morning prayer each day is "Whatever," and whose evening prayer is "Oh, well." Anne thinks of Jesus as "Casper the friendly savior" and describes God as "one crafty mother."
Despite--or because of--her irreverence, faith is a natural subject for Anne Lamott. Since Operating Instructions and Bird by Bird, her fans have been waiting for her to write the book that explained how she came to the big-hearted, grateful, generous faith that she so often alluded to in her two earlier nonfiction books. The people in Anne Lamott's real life are like beloved characters in a favorite series for her readers--her friend Pammy, her son, Sam, and the many funny and wise folks who attend her church are all familiar. And Traveling Mercies is a welcome return to those lives, as well as an introduction to new companions Lamott treats with the same candor, insight, and tenderness.
Lamott's faith isn't about easy answers, which is part of what endears her to believers as well as nonbelievers. Against all odds, she came to believe in God and then, even more miraculously, in herself. As she puts it, "My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers." At once tough, personal, affectionate, wise, and very funny, Traveling Mercies tells in exuberant detail how Anne Lamott learned to shine the light of faith on the darkest part of ordinary life, exposing surprising pockets of meaning and hope.
 
Recommended Reading:
Plan B by Anne Lamott
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott
Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott
Take This Bread by Sara Miles

The Angel Experiment

The Angel Experiment by James Patterson


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What I liked: This book was impossible to put down. I picked it up planning to skim it to make sure it was appropriate for my 8 year old, and wound up spending two nights reading the whole.durn.book. The characters were interesting, the writing was good, and the book threw you into the action right from the start.

What I didn't like: While there was a lot of action, the plot was a little hazy. At first it seemed very clear-cut when one of the flock's members is kidnapped, but the resolution only took the first third of the book.

Final Thoughts: This was just what I needed to kick my reading slump. I'm a little uncertain if I'll let The Spawn read it, the language and content was PG enough, but the graphic violence has me concerned that he might not be ready for it.

Pub. Date: 04/11/2005

Series: Maximum Ride Book 1

Synopsis: Fourteen-year-old Maximum Ride, better known as Max, knows what it's like to soar above the world. She and all the members of the "flock"—Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman and Angel—are just like ordinary kids—only they have wings and can fly. It may seem like a dream come true to some, but their lives can morph into a living nightmare at any time...like when Angel, the youngest member of the flock, is kidnapped and taken back to the "School" where she and the others were experimented on by a crew of wack jobs. Her friends brave a journey to blazing hot Death Valley, CA, to save Angel, but soon enough, they find themselves in yet another nightmare—this one involving fighting off the half-human, half-wolf "Erasers" in New York City. Whether in the treetops of Central Park or in the bowels of the Manhattan subway system, Max and her adopted family take the ride of their lives. Along the way Max discovers from her old friend and father-figure Jeb—now her betrayed and greatest enemy—that her purpose is save the world—but can she?

Recommended Reading:
School's Out - Forever (Maximum Ride Book 2) by James Patterson
Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports (Maximum Ride Book 3) by James Patterson
The Final Warning (Maximum Ride Book 4) by James Patterson
MAX (Maximum Ride Book 5) by James Patterson
City of Ashes (Mortal Instruments Book 2) by Cassandra Clare

More Than Words Bookstore

There's a new bookstore in town. A much needed new bookstore. B. Dalton closed in December leaving the town stranded with the choices at department stores (Wal-Mart, Target and Shopko), the library, and a used bookstore. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with any of these book sources. Department stores are often more inexpensive than bookstore or online sources. They also have limited selections and variety. I'm a fan of the library. My kids and I often spend snowy or rainy weekends there. It's due dates that usually hang me up. I also support recycling books - by either a used bookstore or my favorite site: paperbackswap. But sometimes I get a little impatient. I need that book right.NOW. And I finally have the solution. More Than Words Bookstore (check them out on FaceBook!).

I almost didn't go. A friend of mine went and walked away less than impressed. I had already told The Spawn that we were going and he wasn't going to let me back out of it, though, so off we went. And learned a lesson in perspectives as well. My friend is used to going to a huge Barnes & Noble complete with Starbucks every (or at least most) weekends. I haven't stepped foot in a Barnes & Noble in four years. At least.

Love. Love. Love More Than Words Bookstore. The Spawn was equally impressed, enough so that he called his dad begging to go back over the weekend. So what did we love about the place...

The smell of new books. (Okay, so we're a little easy to please!) It's like the new tape smell, or the new car smell. You can't help but breathe deep. To take deep gulping breaths of sweetly tainted air. It's a bookworm's high.

Atmosphere. I don't know if the ladies who opened the store managed this intentionally with the help of an interior designer, by luck or if they're really that good. But the floors, the color scheme, the variety of book shelving, even the arrangement of areas all seemed perfectly combined to be relaxing. The pictures don't do it justice. I can easily see myself losing several hours in this place. In fact, I spent 45 minutes in book heaven that night and I'm feeling the effects of withdrawal two days later... Even though the store was fairly busy for a week night, it wasn't noisy or crowded. Oddly, I can't remember if there was ambience music playing or not. I always notice ambience music or the lack thereof.

Several things really impressed me about the layout. The young children's section (for The Diva) was separate-yet-not from the rest of the store. The selection was very good, and it wasn't the usual classics/TV character books that I've come to expect. There were books that I'd never heard of. Books that I desperately want to get for her. They even have a little bean bag and table & chair seating area for kids!

The next section was the older kids/teens/young adults (for The Spawn). As he's a little more knowledgeable regarding the books in this section, I'm allowing him to be the judge of it's coolness: "It's freaking awesome! Woohoo!" He seemed ecsatic over the selection. I noticed that it was more of the popular/best selling titles and authors, but I really didn't spend much time looking over this section and left The Spawn to his own book browsing.

I really didn't know what to expect when I entered "my" section of the store. My friend had warned me that the selection was limited, they only had one book of some titles, the store only seemed to stock the owners' favorite authors, and had a cheap shelf of Harlequin romances. I ran through the mental wishlist in my head and started looking. My reading taste is varied. I've even been known to call myself a book whore because I will read anything that catches my interest, might possibly catch my interest or someone says is a good book. (So many books, so little time.) I decided that if they could fill 50% of my wishlist off the rack, they would pass my initial inspection. They did so much better. One book. There was one book out of about 30 that they didn't have, and it was a graphic novel that may or may not be released yet. I'm impressed. Oh, and the Harlequins? Other than the romance novels I was expecting to find in *gasp* the Romance section, there was one small 2'x2' shelf that was far from full.

There is a seating area with a couch, a few chairs, a nice rug, tables for holding your coffee mug, and nice potted plants next to the window. I can see myself relaxing here, cozying up with a pile of books to browse and choose from.

There are two things that I can't review at this time: prices and the coffee service. In all honesty, I didn't check out either. I expect that the prices will be on par with any bookstore, although as time goes on I will be interested to see if they develop a clearance section of some type. As for the coffee, I will probably be checking it out in the (near) future, but I'm going there for the books.

Overall, for a small bookstore that just opened, I give More Than Words a four star rating.

**Pictures hopefully coming soon, pending owners approval.**

Deterred

I went to work this morning with every intention of listening to The Pact by Jodi Picoult. In fact, I even loaded 6 of 15 discs onto my mp3 player. I failed for two reasons.

1. My mp3 player sucks for audiobooks. This is the only issue I have with my player.

2. My boss threw The Black Keys newest album on my desk. And it rocks.