Blogging Challenge - Recommend a Tear Jerker

Day 5 of the Book Blogger's Challenge

I cry about a lot of books, so it's hard to distinguish between an actual tear jerker or something that will only make me cry.

I'm going to go with Come Back by Claire and Mia Fontaine.

Mia ran away from home at 15 and this book is written like the combination of her journal and her mother's journal as she hit rock bottom and then went through rehab.  I've read it several times and cry through large portions of it every time.

Blogging Challege - Book Throwing

Day 4 (Skipped Day 3) - What's the last book you threw across the room?

Jessica by Bryce Courtenay

One of my all time favorite books is The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, and about 25% of the way through Jessica I though I was going to add it to my faves list.  Then it just got frustrating, and more frustrating, and finally I felt like the characters were all behaving out of character to force the plot to go where Bryce wanted it to go.  Fair enough, it's his book, but to me it felt contrived and at the halfway point I threw it across the room never to pick it up again.  I'll admit I still want to know how it ends, but I just couldn't get there.

Blogging Challenge- Bedtime Reading Ritual

Day 2 of the Book Blogger's Challenge

I actually don't have a Bedtime Reading Ritual.  I'm a binge reader.  I either read from the moment I get home from work or I don't read at all.  I need my sleep and I know if I start something good at 9:00 at night I'll be up until I finish it I won't start a book after 7:00 PM.

I probably could have skipped today's Challenge question ;)

Blogging Challenge - 15 Bookish Confessions

Day 1 of the Book Bloggers Challenge

I actually already posted my Top 10 Confessions last year in this post.  So I'm just going to add five.

Bookish Confession #11 - I don't think I ever read Anne of Green Gables.

Bookish Confession #12 - I am currently at least 25% into 4 different books, haven't given up on any of them, but haven't picked them up in 1-4 weeks either.

Bookish Confession #13 - I bought Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell from Amazon UK about a year before it came out in the US and then purchased the kindle version when it came out in the US, but I love the US cover so much I have to fight myself not to buy a third copy everytime I'm in a bookstore. 

Bookish Confession #14 - There are 167 books on my Goodreads to-read shelf.  At least half have been there over a year.

Bookish Confession #15 - I have major book indecision this year.  I can never decide what to read next and end up rereading something I already have memorized.

I'm Baa-aack..

For a few posts at least. 

So quick explanation of my blogging hiatus.  Changed jobs (same company, different responsibilities) and the new job requires quite a few more hours and has been very mentally invigorating but taxing at the same time.  My brain is exhausted.  The extra hours won't change, but I believe that as I adapt to it I'll have a little more brain space to resume reviewing. 

I've had trouble starting and finishing any books of substance lately.  Seriously I've read some terrible romance novels over the last couple months...I was aware they were bad as I was reading them, but they required zero brain power and that's EXACTLY what I was looking for.  Unfortunately that means that the few times I've sat down to write a post, I've discovered I had no books worth reviewing.

April over at Good Books and Good Wine put together a 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge that I decided to participate in.

Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

The Poisonwood Bible

Barbara Kingsolver

653 pgs, 1998

Purchases book

Summary from Goodreads

In 1959, Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist, takes his four young daughters, his wife, and his mission to the Belgian Congo -- a place, he is sure, where he can save needy souls. But the seeds they plant bloom in tragic ways within this complex culture. Set against one of the most dramatic political events of the twentieth century -- the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium and its devastating consequences -- here is "New York Times-bestselling author Barbara Kingslover's beautiful, heartbreaking, and unforgettable epic that chronicles the disintegration of family and a nation.

My Thoughts

As it states in the Goodreads description, Nathan Price decides he has been called to a mission in the Congo and drags his wife and four daughters along with him for what is suppose to be a year.  There are seven sections of the book and the first chapter of each section is in first person from Orleana's perspective looking back on things.  Then the rest of the book is written in alternating chapters from each of the daughter's perspectives in real time.  

The oldest daughter is Rachel at sixteen.  Rachel is vain and ignorant.  At the beginning of the book I was forgiving of her vainity and inaneness - honestly what sixteen year old would be happy about being forced to leave high school and go to the Congo.  Next are the twins Leah and Adah.  Leah is smart, but desperately wants her father's approval and can never quite figure out how to get it.  Adah was born with hemiplegia - half her brain was essential dead when she was born.  As a result she can't speak and one side of her body doesn't work, BUT she can read and write and we learn very quickly from her chapters that she is VERY smart.  Finally Ruth May is the baby.  As the book progresses some of the characters grow from their experiences in the Congo and others cling to the beliefs and stereotypes they came in with and it's fascinating to read as that unfolds.

I'm not going to attempt to get into the plot, because there's just too much to it.  

Kingsolver is brilliant at creating unique voices for each narrator.  Most of the time I find first person books written from alternating perspectives frustrating, but I could open the book up and read a random paragraph and know who’s perspective I’m reading.  The writing is beautiful and descriptive, but it was a harder read for me and took a solid 6 weeks of reading from time to time to finish (but I always wanted to).

My Ratings

Enjoyability (3 out of 5 stars)
Relationships (5 out of 5 stars)
Writing (5 out of 5 stars)

This book will stay with me forever.

Top 10 Tuesday - Fictional Crushes

This is a repost from last year, but it fits this Tuesday's Top 10 from The Broke and the Bookish.

 

I have so many fictional crushes. To be clear I have a broad interpretation of the word "crush". Yes, I'm talking about fictional men I wish weren't fictional so they were date-able, but I'm also talking about women I really want to be friends with. And across all mediums - Books, TV, Movies.

Sometimes I wonder if it damages my dating life cause non-fictional guys just can't measure up! Here are a few of my favorites:

Myron Bolitar is the main character in a series by Harlan Coben. I'll get the obvious stuff out of the way first - he passes the obviously list: Tall, funny, smart, and kind. Top it off with former college athlete, owns his own business, and very family oriented and I'm just head over heels. He has two "nerdy" traits. First, he likes to play original TV Batman trivia with his best friend and second he's 30 and still lives with his parents. But he still lives at home because he likes his parents - not because he's a deadbeat so it's actually kind of attractive (in fiction - it might freak me out in a guy I actually met).

Veronica Mars played by Kristen Bell. I wish I was half as confident as Veronica. She's hated/mocked by half her school and is still confident enough to talk to anyone. She sticks her foot in her mouth occasionally (or frequently), gets embarrassed but then moves on and doesn't let it phase her. As a side note - this has phased into a girl crush on Kristen Bell. Seriously she's hilarious - you can waste a day watching YouTube clips of her on the late shows. Not to mention the sloth video!





Lincoln, Beth, and Jennifer from Attachments by Rainbow Rowell. Is it weird to be slightly jealous of a fictional character (Beth) because another fictional character (Lincoln) likes her. I identified with Lincoln quite a bit. I loved when his mother told him he had a problem with school. Because he just kept going back for more degrees. I want to do that so bad. If I won the lottery I'm fairly certain I would just be a professional student - lots and lots of bachelors and no advanced degrees. Plus yes he hits the trifecta of tall, smart and nice. By the end of the book I felt like I was friends with Beth and Jennifer. Their conversations were so real. Sometimes I'd have deja vu because I had very similar conversations with my friends. Beth and Jennifer's conversations are the perfect combination of funny and supportive.  

Jennifer: Did Chris notice that you couldn't face him?

Beth: No, there was no face time. He fell asleep before I could ask him how practice went. A long night grinding the ax takes it out of you.

Jennifer: Ew. Is that a euphemism for masturb@tion?

Beth: No. I think it's @ euphemism for pl@ying the electric guit@r. Or @n idiom. I don't know. Do you really think "masturbation" is one of Tron's red-flag words?

Jennifer: Well, it doesn't matter now. If we get fired because you insist on poking the dragon, you're going to have to support me and my pricey Baby Gap habit.

Beth: 1. Poking the dragon. Is that another masturbation reference? 2. Baby Gap. Still?

Jennifer: 1. Ha. 2. Still. Last weekend, I scored a celery green snowsuit with matching mittens for $3.99!

Beth: Green is a smart choice - good for an imaginary girl or an imaginary boy. And the season isn't at all relevant for imaginary children.

Jennifer: Exactly. I don't even go to the adult Gap anymore. Once you're an imaginary mother, it's hard to take time for yourself.

Ed Stevens played by Tom Cavanagh on the TV show Ed. Ed is a corporate lawyer in New York. His girlfriend cheats on him and then he gets fired (he missed a comma in a contract - it was an expensive comma). He heads back to his hometown to regroup and runs into some of his old friends and sees the girl he had a crush on in high school. Ed decides to stay in Stuckeyville, buys the bowling alley, and practices law out of an office in said bowling alley. Ed does all the over the top stuff women wish men would do to try to win the affections of his high school crush, Carol. Dresses up in a suit of armor, throws waffles at her bedroom window (first clip towards the end), you get the idea. Then there are the $10 bets with his best friend - they are hilarious (second clip)

  

And my original fictional crush.....Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables. What's kind of embarrassing to admit is that I'm not sure if I read the book or saw the movie first. Gilbert didn't run away when Anne was prickly, he was smart and secure enough with himself to like that Anne was smart too. Gilbert's loyalty makes him so attractive. This list goes on and on, but I think these are my top 5 (or 7 really).