Book Review - At the Water's Edge

At the Water's Edge is the second book I have read this year.  What is even happening to me?  Oh, right!  I have a kid now!

This is one of those books that is hard for me to review.  I saw it when I was looking at ebooks on my library website, and noticed it was the same author who wrote Water for Elephants, which I thought was interesting.  I didn't know anything about the plot of this new book, so I went in with no expectations. 

The framework is that during WWII, a woman ends up on a crazy trip with her husband and his best friend to find the Loch Ness Monster.  This is all just a setup for the actual plot which is all drama.  I honestly felt like the meat of the plot was similar to Water for Elephants (Spoilers in white -lady is married to mean guy so she is allowed to have affair with a nice guy.  Did we mention how mean the husband is?  SO MEAN!). 

This book was definitely interesting, but I hated all of the main characters.  They were whiny jerks and I didn't particularly care what happened to them.  I would have much rather read more about the supporting characters.  So how to rate a book that you can't put down, but don't particularly like?

I probably won't pick up anything else by this author.  

Book Review - Dad is Fat

After reading Food, I had to pick up Jim Gaffigan's first book, Dad is Fat.  I liked this one even more!   He's a comedian with 5 kids, so he's got some witty insights about all the craziness that comes along with parenting.  I was laughing out loud at several points.  I'm curious if most of this is just carried over from his standup, but I've never watched any of it, so it was all fresh for me.

There were several sweet moments in the midst of the humor, as well.  Which is exactly how parenting works.  One second, you are like "I WILL BUY YOU A PONY IF YOU JUST GO TO SLEEP!" and the next you are like "I'll snuggle you forever because you are the sweetest baby in the whole world ever!"  I can only assume it gets worse as they get older and actually have opinions.

There were many quotable quotes, but my favorite was in the middle of his rant that people always have a million opinions about when you have kids, how many kids you have, how far apart they are, etc.

People would never even ask a friend, let alone a stranger, when they plan to get their hair cut, for fear of offending, yet for some reason the “How many children are you going to have” question is fair game.

Yep, that's pretty weird, society.  Stop doing that!

Favorite Books of 2015

Well, happy last day of 2015.  I didn't meet my reading goal for the year, but that was somewhat expected.  Babies really change your priorities when it comes to free time.  Like, should I read a few chapters before I go to sleep?  No.  Kid could wake up at any moment!  Sleep while you can!

I did manage to read 40 books this year.  And let's be honest, if I wanted to cheat, I would just add all the kid books I read and I would get like 100+.  If we count re-reads, probably thousands!  And I think we can all agree about the literary value of Dr. Seuss.  I might have to write a separate post about favorite kid books!

Anyway, what are we even talking about?  Right, my favorite books of the year!  Out of 40, I rated 10 of them as 5 stars.  That's pretty good, or I'm not a very discriminating critic.  Either way, I'm happy with it.  I'm narrowing it down to my top 5, just because I do what I want.

In no particular order:

• We Were Liars - an unreliable narrator keeps you guessing as this mystery unfolds.  It was definitely a book I couldn't put down.  (my review here)
• The Girl on the Train - this was another one I couldn't put down. I just had to know what was going to happen!   (my review here)
• Modern Romance  - very interesting and funny.  Mostly made me really happy I got married before dating got so complicated. (my review here)
• The Martian - cool concept, well-written.  Sciency without being off-putting.  I still need to see the movie (my review here)
• Why Not Me?  - I kind of want to be best friends with Mindy Kaling.  This book was just as funny as her previous one.  I am a little mad at her TV show though, because some of the new episodes make me cry. (my review here)

Did you read anything good in 2015?  Let me know and I will add it to my to-read list, which is completely out of control.  At this rate, it would take me 6 years to get through it, and that's if I stop adding things!

Happy New Year's Eve!  Stay safe tonight and have fun!

Book Review - After You

After You is the sequel to Me Before You.  I remember loving MBY, but looking at Goodreads, I only rated it 3 stars.  Probably because I hated the ending.  Anyway, After You picks up about 2 years later with Louisa.  She's still a mess, and things get messier and messier.

Here's the deal:  Jojo Moyes is an excellent writer, so this book was enjoyable to read.  I found myself really caring about the characters, and needing to know what happened to them.  But the plot is so ridiculous.  It just became too much to believe.  And the ending seemed very predictable to me. But I guess I shouldn't complain, since this ending was much happier than the first book.

Speaking of Me Before You, I didn't know there was a movie!  It's coming out in the spring.  I will have to get over the fact that it stars Khaleesi, Finnick Odair, Clara Oswald, Tywin Lannister, and Neville Longbottom.

Book Review - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

This book has been on my to-read list for almost 5 years!  I finally got around to it, because of the Winter Book Challenge.  One category was a book with a person's first and last name in the title.

This book was fascinating and heartbreaking.  It is part biography of Henrietta Lacks, and part scientific history of her cells and how they have been used.  It is pretty science-heavy at times, but not anything too complicated (and I mean, the only science class I took in college was astronomy).  It's just crazy how much medical research and patient consent has changed in the last 60 years, and even crazier how much it hasn't.

As we enter the last month of the year, it's clear I won't be hitting my goal of reading 50 books.  Unless I include all the books I read to Mr. Baby.  Then I'd be well over 100.

Winter book challenge update - November

One month into the challenge, here's what I have read.  I actually read 4 of these in the first 2 weeks, and then kind of fizzled.  My library hold list gave me 5 books at once and I wasn't sure which one to read first, so I kind of panicked and didn't read anything for almost 2 weeks!  Then I panicked again and quickly read After You, before I had to return it.  

• 10 points: Read a book that does not take place in your current country of residence. The Martian (369 pages, 5 stars) - my review
• 20 points: Read a food-themed book. Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan (340 pages, 5 stars) - my review
• 20 points: Read a book with a person's first and last name in the title  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (370 pages, 4 stars)
• 15 points: Read a book with a one-word title.Wonder (320 pages, 5 stars) - I might move this to another category, just depending on what else I manage to read.  - my review

• 15 points: Read a book published under a pseudonym  - After You (Jojo Moyes real name is Pauline Sara Jo Moyes) (352 pages, stars)

So that leaves me with 80 points this month.  Not too bad!  And yeah, almost none of these were on my preliminary list.  I'm crazy like that.  

Book Review - Wonder

Wonder is a kid's book, which is why I hadn't read it yet, even though I've seen it all over the place.  I finally picked it up and am so glad I did.  It was a really sweet story.  August is a 5th grader who has pretty severe facial deformity.  Finally healthy enough to attend school after years of being home-schooled, this book follows him through 5th grade.  Chapters are mostly from his perspective, but also his sister and some of his classmates.  Palacio manages to tell a very heartwarming story without getting cheesy.  I may have even teared up in a few places.  I've always been a softy, but being a mom has made me even more sensitive when it comes to kids!      

Book Review - Food

Food is a very funny book.  I've been vaguely aware of Jim Gaffigan for quite awhile, but never watched any of his stand-up, so this was all pretty much new material for me.  I did watch a few YouTube videos and some of it is apparently verbatim from his stand up acts, so if you've been a big fan, some of this book will likely be repetitive.

He just talks about food, specifically in America, and says funny things.  The 2 main sections are about the geographic food identities in the US, and then the rundown of all the fast food options.  I laughed out loud multiple times and read the funniest sections out loud to John.  As someone who thinks most seafood is fairly disgusting, I really appreciated his take on shellfish.  They are giant sea bugs.  His whole spiel about McDonald's was spot on, as well.  Everyone acts like they are too good to eat at McDonald's, but they are serving billions somehow.

Anyway, I thought it was a pretty fun book.  And pretty clean.  Sometimes comedians rely so much on being vulgar, but Gaffigan seems to stay PG while also being hilarious.  It probably helps that he has 5 kids.  Now I want to read his other book.  That might be a good audiobook for our long car ride over the holidays.      

Book Review - The Martian

So after many months of being on the wait list, I finally got a copy of the ebook for The Martian.  You've probably heard of it, or at least the movie.  Well, I'd say it was worth the hype.  I really enjoyed it.

It follows an astronaut who gets stuck on Mars, and the story is mostly told through his daily entries in the log.  Obviously, he has some big struggles staying alive on a planet that humans can't live on.  I was a little worried I would get bored of the scientific explanations of what he was doing and why, but those parts seemed helpful to the context of the story.

Now I just need to find a time to see the movie and compare!

Book Review - Why Not Me?

Mindy Kaling is a celebrity I would totally hang out with.  She just seems really nice and funny, and a little bit awkard.  Her new book, Why Not Me was endearing and fun, just like her previous book.

One thing she talks about is how people always mention that she isn't a "conventional looking" actress and doesn't bow to the pressures of Hollywood.  To this, she says "My deep dark secret is that I absolutely do try to conform to normal standards of beauty. I am just not remotely successful at it."

I thought that was kind of awesome.  Me too, Mindy.  Me too.  

Book Review - Modern Romance

Since I didn't watch Parks and Rec, why am I reading books by the cast?  No one knows.  But Modern Romance is really interesting and has nothing to do with the show.  Aziz Ansari teams up with sociologists to look at how people date now, with all the technological and cultural changes.  Since I've been married for 8 years, online dating wasn't a big thing for me, but it has been for some of my friends and I think it is fascinating.  

He also talks about the abundance of choices that are available to us now (in all aspects of life, not just dating) and how that can be paralyzing as we aren't happy unless we find the BEST option, which may not even exist.  I absolutely relate to this.  Especially when trying to figure out what things to buy for a baby.  How many hours did we spend researching car seats or cribs?  When they all meet the same safety regulations and are pretty much the same.  

Back to dating, Ansari met with people in a few different cities and a few different countries to see how dating works and how technology is used.  One stop was Wichita, Kansas (my hometown is apparently one of the worst places to date) and now I'm curious if he talked to anyone I knew.  It's not likely, but not impossible.  And I can now blame location on the fact that I didn't have any boyfriends until I moved away.  It also may have had something to do with the fact that I was in high school and taller than almost every boy.  Or maybe that I'm kind of weird.  Impossible to know for sure.  Blame Wichita!

Reading this got me thinking about how much technology has changed just since I first had crushes on boys, and how my generation has navigated all the new ways to communicate.From email to chatrooms to AIM to MySpace and beyond.  I might just have to write another post spilling all my thoughts about that.  I'll be like "back in my day, we didn't have fancy emojis!  We had to use punctuation to make sideways faces and no one knew what any of them really meant! And we had to say I <3U while walking barefoot through the snow uphill both ways holding nothing but a baked potato to keep our hands warm!"

What are we even talking about anymore?  Right, this book was cool.  I think Ansari should do more books like this.    

Winter Reading Challenge

Since I actually finished the Summer Reading Challenge, I'm even more excited for the winter one.  Reading is getting a little trickier since my boy is no longer sleeping all the time, but I can still try.  I like these challenges (even if I don't finish), because it helps me prioritize my ridiculously long to-read list.  So here's my preliminary list of books for each category:

• 5 points: Read a book that has between 100 and 200 pages. Hector and the Search for Happiness
• 10 points: Read a debut book by any author.  Everything Is Illuminated
• 10 points: Read a book that does not take place in your current country of residence. Euphoria or The President's Hat
• 10 points: Read a book that someone else has already used for the challenge.  Tbd 
• 15 points: Read a book published under a pseudonym  - The Cuckoo's Calling
• 15 points: Read a book with “boy,” “girl,” “man” or “woman” in the title (or the plural of these words). The Kommandant's Girl or A Man Called Ove or To All the Boys I've Loved Before
• 15 points: Read a book with a one-word title.  Euphoria or Pretties (Uglies, #2) 
• 20 points: Read a book with a person's first and last name in the title  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks or The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks 
• 20 points: Read a food-themed book. Chocolat or The Cookbook Collector
• 20 points: Read a book with a verb in the title. The Summer I Turned Pretty(Summer, #1) or Go Set a Watchman (depending on if I ever make it to the top of the hold list!)
• 30 points: Read two books with the same title (by different authors). Life After Life and Life After Life
• 30 points: Read a nonfiction book and a fiction book about the same subject. Below Stairs and The Remains of the Day  - both about servants in England

The challenge starts on Nov 1, so I'm trying to finish up Why Not Me and then read Carry On before then!  

Book Review - Furiously Happy

Furiously Happy is the new book by The Bloggess.  She's one of the very few famous people I've met (back in 2013).  I really like her blog and her first book, so of course, I had to read this new book, as well.

It's a little more serious than the first book, but that's not really saying much.  Still hilarious and inappropriate, Lawson talks about ridiculous things and serious things.  She shares more about her struggles with mental health, but not in an obnoxious way.  And she just tells lots of funny stories about her various misadventures.  I mean, when the cover is an overenthusiastic taxidermied raccoon, what else would you expect?

Not for the easily offended (or even not-so-easily offended).  But if you like her blog or liked her first book, you'll probably like this one too.

Book Review - Yes Please

Here's an unpopular opinion: I tried watching Parks and Rec and just couldn't get into it.  It seems like a show I would love, but I just didn't find it all that funny after watching a few episodes.  

Anyway, I kept hearing people say Amy Poehler's book was great, so I decided to read it, even though I'm not a huge fan of hers.  Plus my library has the ebook, which is awesome for me right now.

AP is funnier in parts of the book than I usually think she is on TV.  But she spends a lot of time talking about how hard it is to write a book, or glossing over times in her life that would be more interesting.  I didn't want her to dish all the dirt on her divorce, but some more details about the different theaters and jobs she had as she was working her way up to SNL would have been fun.  I guess the whole thing was just kind of boring, and she seems like she's had a pretty interesting life, so how did a fairly short memoir not capture that?  

I didn't love the book, but for some reason it did make me want to try watching Parks and Rec again.  So maybe I'll try that.

Book Review - You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)

The most surprising thing about reading Felicia Day's book is that she is apparently not as famous as I thought.  She talks about being situationally famous with nerds, but I was thinking, no Felicia, you're actually famous.  Then I mentioned the book to a handful of people who had no idea who she is.  Okay.  And I guess that makes me a nerd?

Anyway, do you know who she is?  I knew her from The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog.  Plus she's been a recurring guest star in a handful of TV shows that I've watched.  And of course, I follow her on Twitter.  

So I knew a little bit about her, but not too much.  Turns out she is way more fascinating than I realized!  From a pretty bizarre childhood, to double majoring in math and violin at college only to move to LA to become an actress.  I thought she was sort of famous first and then made The Guild, but apparently not.  I want to go back and watch it again, because I didn't realize how low budget it was!

I really enjoyed her writing style and stories.  She's a celebrity that I think would be fun to meet, but now that I know she's not as much of a celebrity as I originally thought, that's probably why she seems more down to earth.

She warns the reader that the book might get too nerdy at points.  This was definitely true for me.  I've never gotten into gaming.  The extent of my World of Warcraft knowledge comes from a friend in college who I had almost every class with one semester.  We sat together in every class and he played WoW while pretending to "take notes" on his laptop.  So I'd get pretty distracted like "is that dwarf flying around on a magic tiger??"  But I didn't find the nerdier moments of the book off-putting, just realized that I probably didn't fully appreciate what she was talking about.

All in all, I thought this was a pretty good book.  Memoirs can go terribly wrong, but Felicia Day did alright!  

Book Review - Armada

I've been anxiously awaiting Armada's release ever since I read Ready Player One.  I had read some reviews saying it was nowhere near as good, which I was kind of expecting, because RPO was SO SO GOOD!  And despite my lowered expectations, I was still disappointed.  I figured even if it wasn't as good, it would still be good.  And well...  I guess it was an enjoyable read, but it just felt really forced.  The story line was basically aliens invading earth, and video gamers are recruited to save the day.  Not exactly an original plot.  There were also about a million references to other books, movies, and video games that deal with aliens invading earth, which I am sure I didn't appreciate as much as some might.  I suspect I didn't quite get about half of the references.  Probably because my favorite video games are less about aliens and more about plumbers saving a princess. Or dancing.  

The more reviews I write, the more I realize that my rating system doesn't make sense.  I'm all "this book was dumb!" and rate it 3 stars, which according to Goodreads is "liked it."  My rating system is probably more like:

5 stars = loved it!  will tell everyone to read it
4 stars = liked it.  will recommend it to specific people I know love to read, or like that specific genre.
3 stars = meh.  I wouldn't tell anyone to read it, but if you said you were going to, I wouldn't discourage you
2 stars = I'd recommend you skip it.
1 star = looking at my reviews, these are mostly books I had to read in school or that online book club I used to be in.  These are books I will likely go on rants about.  Or maybe didn't finish because they were so awful.

So anyway, Armada was just okay.  If you are super into alien video games, you might like it better.  But I'll probably continue to read novels by Ernest Cline.  

Book Review - Station Eleven

Station Eleven is a kind of bizarre book.  I knew that it was a novel set after the collapse of society (flu kills almost everyone, which you know, isn't as far-fetched as I want it to be).  I didn't know that it centered around a traveling symphony.  I was actually super excited about the book, and telling John about it, and as I read the synopsis on Goodreads, thought it sounded kind of cheesy.  But I went ahead and read it, because I had heard good things.  And I really liked it.  The story jumps back and forth between about 20 years after the flu outbreak and about 20 years before.  And how the main characters lives somehow intertwine over the years and everything that happens.

Overall, I thought this book was interesting and well-written, but I wanted more closure at the end.  It was one of those books where it seemed like the author was just like 'Meh, I'm tired of writing.  It's good enough."  And I know authors do that sometimes for effect, and to make the reader fill in the blanks, but sometimes it works better.

I'll probably check out the other books by Emily St. John Mandel at some point.  Maybe they have more closure?  

Book Review - The Dovekeepers

For some reason, I thought The Dovekeepers had a WWII connection.  I knew it was about Masada, but thought it jumped back and forth between the two time periods.  It doesn't. Just the Masada storyline. 

I was somewhat familiar with what happened at Masada, but I didn't remember exactly.  And the author uses the historical account as a framework for the fictional characters.  There are 4 sections, each told from the perspective of a different woman who ended up at Masada.  

Honestly, it took me awhile to get interested.  Our first narrator is boring at first.  She is more interesting in the other narrators sections.  About 100 pages in, I wanted to quit.  But so many people who I trust for book advice had recorded it, and I was using it for a category of the book challenge, so I kept going.  

I'm glad I finished reading it.  Things got more interesting and then I liked it.  I mean, spoiler alert: almost everyone dies, but I already knew that.  

Book Review - The Dinner

The Dinner is a book that I picked based on knowing nothing about it, per the reading challenge requirements.  It came up as a recommendation on my library ebook account and I thought the cover looked interesting.  And I'll give the library credit, because I thought it was an enjoyable read!

It is the story of two couples out to dinner and how their conversation tiptoes around a serious issue.  The narrator is one of the men and he fills in the blanks of what happened recently.  It's kind of suspenseful, as you learn bits and pieces of the story as the dinner progresses.  This isn't the kind of book where you particularly like any of the characters, but I'm okay with that.  Sorry my synopsis is kind of lame.  I feel like the best part of the book is how bits and pieces of the story are slowly revealed.  The summary on Goodreads gives too much away, so I'm glad I didn't know anything about this book when I started reading it!

Summer Reading Challenge

I finally finished a reading challenge (all the details on the challenge here)!!!  I've started a few of these (here and here) in the past and either didn't like a category, or got distracted with other books that didn't fit the categories.  This time, I was somewhat limited to ebooks that my library had, but several of the books I wanted to read fit into categories, so it worked out!  Here's the breakdown of what I read each month, and what category/points they were.  The challenge goes through the end of August, so you still have time to join in if you want!  

May: 40 points

• 15 points: Read a book with "light" or "dark" in the title. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - 531 pages, 5 stars
• 15 points: Read a book by an author who is completely new to you. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins - 323 pages, 5 stars 
• 10 points: Read a book that has been on your TBR list for at least two years. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins - 372 pages, 2 stars (note - I could have sworn that my sister told me to read this, but when I mentioned it to her, she hasn't read it.  So I have no idea who recommended it to me)

June: 100 points

• 15 points: Read a book by an author you have read before.  Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins - 384 pages, 2 stars (note - this is the "not really sequel" to Anna and the French Kiss, which I didn't love, but they were decent reads for when I was caring for a newborn and awake at all hours of the night.  Interesting enough to keep my eyes open, but very easy to put down when I had a chance to sleep)
• 10 points: Read a book that won a Goodreads “Best Book” award in 2014. We Were Liars by E Lockhart - 227 pages, 5 stars
• 30 points: Read a book with an alliterative title.  Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine - 232 pages, 5 stars
• 20 points: Read a book with an animal on the cover.  Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris - 275 pages, 3 stars
• 25 points: Read a book that is part of a series with at least four books. A Wrinkle in Time  by Madeleine L'Engle - 211 pages, 4 stars

July: 60 points

• 5 points: Freebie! Read any book that fits the general rules.  Uglies by Scott Westerfeld - 425 pages, 4 stars
• 20 points: Read a book with the name of a city, state or country in the title. China Dolls by Lisa See - 376 pages, 4 stars
• 25 points: Read a book that is longer than 500 pages long.  The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman - 504 pages, 4 stars
• 10 points: Read a book you have never heard of before.  The Dinner by Herman Koch - 292 pages, 4 stars