Book Review: Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict

Laurie Viera Rigler is the author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, which I read back in 2008 and reviewed here.  I honestly don't remember much about this book except that it helped to answer my questions about what would happen if, like Courtney in the novel, I somehow woke up one day and found myself in Regency England instead of the present-day US.  But one question the book created was what happened to Jane Mansfield, the Regency girl who switched places with Courtney?

Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict answers that question, following Jane from the moment she awakens as Courtney Stone, a resident of Los Angeles in 2009.  This is the kind of story I've been making up since I first started reading:  what would happen if the heroine of one of my favorite books woke up in my time?  How fun would it be to introduce her to my world?  For that reason alone, I think I enjoyed reading Awakenings a little more than Confessions.

Awakenings does have a cute little message spread throughout it's pages about making the best with whatever life throws at you.  Nothing life changing, and not really the point of reading a novel like this.  You read this book to see how a Regency heroine would walk, talk, and act in today's world.  If you don't already have an interest in the Regency period, I can't see it inspiring you to try something different.  Apparently not too many people have that interest these days, since I found Awakenings at the Dollar Tree.  But if, like me, you're a Jane Austen addict, it's certainly a fun read for your day off, and probably worth more than a dollar!

The Big Read: Top 21

It's no secret that I love the 43things website.  I think it's a really positive site and a great place to keep track of personal goals.  I always like to take a few minutes to cheer other users' goals, and use the opportunity to look for things I've never heard of before.  Today I found "Complete The Big Read" and immediately adopted it for my own list of goals.

The Big Read is a list of UK's "Most-Loved Books" that was compiled by the BBC in 2003 after several months of voting by viewers.  What I love about this list of 200 books is that they range from classic to contemporary, and from low- to high-brow choices.  So I decided to challenge myself to read the top 21 books from this list:

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen  
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee  
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell  
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks  
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier  
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger  
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame  
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott  
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

I'm pretty excited to see that I've already read about 10 on the list.  I say "about" because there are at least four that I know I've started but can't remember finishing.   Worst case scenario, there are 11 left to read and 11 months left in 2013.  Absolutely an attainable goal!

Book Review: A Dog's Purpose

I received A Dog's Purpose (by W. Bruce Cameron) as a gift from my wonderful Aunt Paula, who gives me a dog-centered book for Christmas every year.  I had never seen or heard of the book before I unwrapped it, and didn't want to ruin the story by reading the reviews on the back cover.  So when I started reading it, all I knew was that it was written from a dog's point of view, through several reincarnations, as he struggles to find his purpose in life.

I guess I should mention here and now that I am a sucker for anything dog related, so I might be a little biased when I state that this book was fabulous and I loved it.  I found the dog's views on everything from dog catchers and eating poop to pondering why any human would bother owning a cat to be charming.  I loved hearing human conversations from a dog's perspective, and then his admission that he only understood words like "food", "cat", "car", and "bad dog."   And I think most humans could identify with his initial worry of not finding his true purpose and his struggle to make the best with what life presents him.  I LOVE this book and, with the exception of dog-haters, would recommend it to anyone

But I do feel that there needs to be a warning on this book.  Remember how I said that the dog was reincarnated several times?  Sure, that means that you get to hear about him being a squiggly, squirmy, chubby puppy more than once.  What I didn't stop to consider was that to be reincarnated you have to die first.  It was like the ending of Marley & Me repeated multiple times in one novel, from Marley's point of view.  I think I cried about eight times.  And to be honest, it was probably more like sobbing on several of those occasions.  I couldn't find any tissues.  My eyes got completely swollen and bloodshot, and I lost the ability to breathe through my nose.  It was terrible.  It took an hour of fetch with my dogs to make myself feel better.  A day later, I'm still not fully recovered from the experience.

Despite the risks of a red nose and swollen eyes,  A Dog's Purpose is worth reading.  I haven't enjoyed a book this much since I read Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, which was probably 15 years ago.  But please consider, if things like Sarah McLaughlin's ASPCA commercials make you cry, you probably need to do a little preparation before diving in.  Make sure you don't need to go out in public for at least 24 hours after reading.  Record several episodes of Too Cute on Animal Planet to counteract side effects like lingering tears or the urge to purchase several puppies.  And definitely stock up on tissues because you'll need them.

Book Review: Charlie St. Cloud

I guess I should start off by saying yes, I did buy a book with Zac Efron on the cover, and yes, I am okay with that. Maybe now is a good time to get one of my deep, dark secrets off my chest: I have seen all three High School Musicals, and I even went to see the stage version at Merry-Go-Round Playhouse last summer. And I enjoyed it! I have the tastes of a 12-year-old girl, and I am not ashamed to admit it.

Zac Efron, however, is not the reason that I purchased Ben Sherwood's novel Charlie St. Cloud. The truth is, the movie looks great from the previews I've seen, and I hate seeing a movie before I read the book, because usually the book is way better. We can discuss exceptions to this rule at a later time. Charlie St. Cloud was originally published as The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud, and I'm hoping that the title was the only thing that was changed for this edition, since it always annoys me when books get edited after a movie is made. There aren't any notations on the book, but the presence of Zac Efron's pretty face kind of makes me worry that the book has been dumbed down for teenyboppers.

Charlie is a teenage boy that gets along remarkably well with his little brother Sam. So well in fact, that when the two boys are in a horrific car accident, they make a promise to each other to always stay together. Years later, Charlie is found working at the cemetary where his brother is buried...and seeing, talking to, and playing catch with Sam every night as the sun goes down. Charlie, at 28, has given up school, girlfriends, basically life itself, just to stay with his little brother. Then along comes Tess, a gorgeous sailmaker, who just might be responsible for Charlie coming to life again.

Charlie St. Cloud was a really quick read, so much so that I thought it might be considered a young adult read. Regardless of it's genre, it was enjoyable. I think it would be a great beach read, and definitely worth reading before going to see the movie.

Book Review: Oryx and Crake

Margaret Atwood is by far my favorite contemporary writer. She wrote my favorite book of all time, The Blind Assassin, and I have genuinely enjoyed every Atwood novel that I've read. She writes poetry as well, but considering I dislike poetry in general and I don't want to ruin our author-reader relationship, I'm just going to stick with her prose for now.
Oryx and Crake is a bit different from The Blind Assassin, which was set in the past and could definitely have been a true story. Oryx and Crake is more like her novel The Handmaid's Tale, only instead of crazy religious people shooting up Congress and taking over the US, genetic engineering ends up wiping out a good part of society. I know that sounds awful, but it is really is an amazing book, right along the lines of 1984 or Brave New World, which both could happen, but you hope that it doesn't go down in your lifetime.

As always with Atwood, Oryx and Crake is so well written that I couldn't put it down, and will definitely be reading it again. I know I say that about a lot of books, which could either mean I don't have very discerning taste, or I am just really good at picking out books I know I'm going to like. But my true test of a good book would be recommending it to my friends, and Oryx and Crake definitely passes.

Book Review: Night

Night by Elie Wiesel has been on my reading list for quite a while. There is so much to say about this book, that I don't really know where to start. It was:

• horrifying
• tragic
• thought-provoking
• devastating
• unforgettable

I have read many books about the Holocaust. Some were children's fiction, some were journals, some were novels, and some were based on interviews with survivors. None that I have read were written so simply, or so mesmerizing as Night. Elie Wiesel wrote this book in Yiddish, years after his release from a concentration camp. You would think that it would not be such a smooth read, but the translation is amazing. While reading it, you feel as if you are observing everything he describes, and it is terrifying. For someone to have survived, and then shared such an experience is amazing. I doubt that there is anything further I can say that has not already been said by someone else, and better, but I can believe that if everyone had to read this book and imagine themselves or their family experiencing such horror, perhaps there could be an end to such cruelty and inhumanity. Then again, perhaps not.

(Night available from target.com for $8.45 on June 18, 2010)

**Full disclosure: I work for Target as a pharmacist, so I purchase almost everything there, which is why most products have a link to Target instead of Walgreens or Borders, etc. I always link to the merchandiser where I purchase the item, so please don't think I am advertising for Target. It is just cheaper and more convenient for me to shop there! I do not profit from this blog in any way, other than enjoying writing it.**

Book Review: Fahrenheit 451

I don't know why I call these "book reviews" because really, I don't feel like I'm smart enough to write a review...any ideas about a proper name for it? Anyhow, onto the actual subject, I decided a few weeks ago to really knuckle down in regards to my goals on 43things.com, and realized that one of my goals is still the Rory Gilmore book list. So I printed it out, and on my lunch break wandered around Target's book section in search of anything that sounded interesting on the list. I found Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, which I somehow never had to read in high school or college. Not sure what's up with that, because it was very enjoyable and kind of scary all at the same time.

I'm sure everyone knows the plot: in the future, firemen burn books instead of fighting fires. One fireman begins to question why books are being burned, and decides to try to change things. What I find amazing was that this book was written over 50 years ago, and quite a lot of what the author describes as the future seems to be coming true. He talks about "seashells" that you wear in your ears, "tv walls" where you can interact with actors, and a general dumbing down of society. I can visualize how this book could become true at some point, and that scares me.

I am rereading this book, because it was so engrossing that I think I probably skimmed over parts, and I feel like I need to "know" every bit of it. Yes, I will say that it's a very good book. So maybe this is a review after all? I still don't feel it!

Goal: Read all the books from the Rory Gilmore Bookclub

I actually started this project ages ago, and forgot about it, so I’m going to get back on track!

001 A Month Of Sundays by Julie Mars
002 The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
003 Small Island by Andrea Levy
004 My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
005 A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
006 My Life in Orange by Tim Guest
007 Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett
008 The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
009 The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
010 How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
011 The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
012 Nervous System by Jan Lars Jensen
013 The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
014 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
015 How the Light Gets In by M. J. Hyland
016 Oracle Night by Paul Auster
017 Quattrocento by James McKean
018 The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan
019 Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
020 Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
021 Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
022 The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
023 The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
024 Old School by Tobias Wolff
025 The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
026 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
027 The Bielski Brothers by Peter Duff
028 Brick Lane by Monica Ali
029 Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
030 The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
031 Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
032 The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
033 Property by Valerie Martin Find out more
034 Rescuing Patty Hearst by Virginia Holman
035 The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
036 Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
037 The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander
038 Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
039 Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
040 Fat Land : How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
041 Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
042 Unless by Carol Shields
043 Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
044 When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
045 Songbook by Nick Hornby
046 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
047 Extravagance by Gary Krist
048 Empire Falls by Richard Russo
049 The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
050 Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
051 A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
052 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
053 Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
054 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
055 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
056 The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
057 The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
058 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
059 Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
060 Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
061 The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
062 A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
063 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
064 Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
065 Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
066 Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
067 The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
068 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
069 The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
070 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
071 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
072 Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia De Burgos by Julia De Burgos
073 The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
074 Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
075 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
076 The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
077 Night by Elie Wiesel
078 The Code of the Woosters by P. G. Wodehouse
079 Hamlet by William Shakespeare
080 Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
081 Beloved by Toni Morrison
082 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
083 A Separate Peace by John Knowles
084 Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
085 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
086 The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
087 The Awakening by Kate Chopin
088 Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
089 Time and Again by Jack Finney
090 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
091 The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
092 Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
093 Sybil by Flora Schreiber
094 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
095 Cousin Bette by Honore De Balzac
096 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
097 Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
098 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
099 The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
100 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
101 Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
102 The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
103 1984 by George Orwell
104 The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
105 The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
106 An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
107 Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
108 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
109 Lord of the Flies by William Golding
110 The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
111 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
112 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
113 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
114 The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner
115 The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
116 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
117 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
118 Emma by Jane Austen
119 On The Road by Jack Kerouac
120 The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

I think my next book on the list will be The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, since I’m pretty sure I own that one already!

See more progress on: Read all of the books from Rory Gilmore's bookclub

Sarah's Top 8 Books for 2008

These are not what I think are the best books published in 2008, because a) I haven't read all the books published in 2008, and b) some of these weren't published this year. These are merely my favorite books that I read this past year:

8. Change of Heart, Jodi Picoult
This is Jodi Picoult's latest about a prisoner on death row who believes he was condemned for a reason. The twist was so obvious that I won't name the movie that it reminded me of, but you'll see what I'm talking about when you read it. Still, one of the better books I read this year!

7. Love & Louis XIV, Antonia Fraser
For anyone considering this book: it's not a novel, but more like a research compilation about all the women who affected the life of Louis XIV. I loved it, but I'm also a nerd...

6. Me & Emma, Elizabeth Flock
Me & Emma has to be one of the sadder books I read this year, but I couldn't put it down, and ended up rereading it to make sure what I thought happened had really happened!

5. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Gregory Maguire
I don't normally like this author's writing (I think I'm prejudiced toward male authors writing what I classify as 'female fiction', but I really liked this retelling of Cinderella.

4. Airframe, Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton is one of my favorite authors, and sadly passed away this year. This book is a thriller, and also taught me a little about the airline industry. Maybe more than I needed to know!

3. 19 Minutes, Jodi Picoult
Probably the saddest book on my list, I was completely sympathetic towards the criminal and found myself hating the victims of a school shooting. One of my favorite Jodi Picoult books, because I think it might enlighten people and help change attitudes towards bullying in schools...

2. Mademoiselle Boleyn, Robin Maxwell
I've always liked Anne Boleyn best of Henry's wives, and never understood why she was so hated. So when a book came out from her point of view, I naturally had to read it. Awesome!

1. The Tenth Circle, Jodi Picoult
This is my favorite Jodi Picoult book of all time. I couldn't stop reading it, and unlike many legal thrillers, I didn't see the end coming a mile away. If anyone ever reads one of my favorites, this should be first choice!

Book Review: Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict

According to the cover of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, by Laurie Viera Rigler, it is "A rich, saucy lark of a book." I have to agree with that statement, even as I found the book to be a bit fluffy even for my own chick-lit loving tastes and somewhat predictable. I, however, have never turned my nose up at a predictable book, as I hate to be shocked by an unhappy ending more than most. So keeping that in mind, I did enjoy Confessions quite a bit, and struggled not to read it while I was at work for 12 hours on Monday.

Courtney Stone is a modern girl living in LA, that has just broken up with her fiance. One morning, after a vodka and Austen-filled comfort session, she wakes up to find that she inhabits the body of a woman during the Regency period in England. At first she thinks she's dreaming, but as she wakes up day after day as another person, she comes to realize that she might be stuck there.

At first, this seemed like something I would like to experience, although I've always been partial to the post-civil war era in Wyoming, or other places out West. But the more you think about it, the less exciting it seems. I mean, you have to go to the bathroom in an outhouse, give birth without benefit of painkillers, and suffer through the summer in hot woolen dresses with long sleeves, because it's considered ill-mannered to show one's elbows or wrists. So I wondered how this book would handle such things - would it just breeze over the more unpleasant aspects of this era, like so many romance novels do, or delve into the nitty-gritty? It turns out that the author didn't shy away from such things. We see a doctor "bleeding" a patient, what it's like for a woman back then to have her period, and something that has always concerned me - bathing in a public bathhouse. Quite refreshing, and just for giving us the good and the bad of Regency times, this book is worth a read!

On a final note, before I was even halfway through, one of my techs requested I loan it to her. So we'll have to see what her opinion is after she's done.

Book Review: Me & Emma

I'm not really sure what possessed me to buy this book, because once I started reading it I realized that it wasn't a happy, smiley book. I see enough nastiness at work, so I don't like to read about it on my day off...unless it involves celebrities and their various interests. Then I'll read all about it!

Me & Emma was written by Elizabeth Flock, an author that I am was not familiar with. It's a story about an impoverished family, told by Carrie the oldest daughter. She has a little sister named Emma, a mother who doesn't seem very fond of her children, especially Emma, and an incredibly abusive stepfather. When I say "incredibly abusive" it's not incredibly abusive to me, as child who was never even spanked. I mean incredibly abusive from any perspective, as the novel's first line is, "The first time Richard hit me I saw stars in front of my eyes just like they do in cartoons."

I'm not really a fan of child-abuse stories, as the movie Radio Flyer scarred me at an early age, but the matter-of-factness of that first statement forced me to continue reading the book, despite concerns that I would be subjected to detailed descriptions of various kinds of child abuse. For the most part, that isn't the case. The author is so good at staying in character as a child who has grown up believing that such treatment is normal, that sometimes it takes a few pages for you to realize that something has happened. I won't lie, I was shocked by some aspects of the story, but was unable to put this book down because I needed to know what happened to Carrie and Emma.

When I first started the book, I thought I knew how it would end. I changed my mind halfway through, only to find myself correct from the beginning. So you could say the ending was kind of predictable, but you'll be interested while getting there. I'll label this as a definite reread, because I actually read it a second time immediately after finishing it the first time! And I've recommended it to several family members, and now to you!

(Me & Emma available at target.com for $11.01 on July 15, 2008. I purchased it in-store at WalMart for $8.88 but wasn't able to find it on their website, so I headed over to Target for a link.)

The Tenth Circle

Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors, and The Tenth Circle is my favorite of her many novels. So I was excited when I heard that Lifetime was making a movie of the book, although there is always the concern that the filmmakers will completely slaughter the material.

It seems that the latter is the case for this particular offering. It's hard for me to consider the movie by itself, because I love the book so much. So this review is a little biased in that respect, because my biggest issue with the movie was that it left out some of what I thought were the most important parts of the book.

The plot of the book and movie is pretty simple. A boy breaks up with his high school girlfriend. In an effort to get him back, the girl tries to make him jealous at a party. They end up having sex. The girl says he raped her. The boy says she asked for it. Then the boy ends up dead. Sounds simple, right? Well, in the movie it is. Everything moves along quickly with minimal emotion, and all the loose ends are knotted up by the end. The book is a bit more convoluted. There are twists and turns, an escape to Alaska, adultery, lies, heartwrenching emotions, and my favorite part, a graphic novel written into the book. The book does not end neatly. It's much more realistic, and leaves the reader hanging, much like real life would be.

The location of the movie was perfect, exactly how it should have been. I also enjoyed the performances of all the actors. The girl who plays Trixie is exactly how I imagined her, except without red hair. And Kelly Preston, who I've never especially loved, did a great job as the mother. All in all, if you have some time to waste watching a well made but not very involved movie, then watch The Tenth Circle on Lifetime. (I'm sure it'll be aired many more times, since it was heavily promoted.) If you want to get sucked into a story and not be able to get away from it, pick up the book. As is so often the case, the book is so much better than the movie!

Book Review: Mademoiselle Boleyn

I purchased Mademoiselle Boleyn, by Robin Maxwell, back in December as a Christmas gift for the Mothership, who enjoyed The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, and all the books that followed. Because this book looked similar in style, I figured she would enjoy it, and then I could borrow it. Well, the Mothership arrived at my house the other day with a bagful of books that I had given her, and I had my pick of what I wanted to read! This one had the prettiest cover, and I dug right in.

Mademoiselle Boleyn turned out to be another impeccably researched historical novel, and one that I think I place above all others regarding Anne Boleyn, because it comes from her point of view, and thus, is a little more charitable in it's opinions than some. The storyline starts when Anne is very young and at court in the Netherlands. Later, she is sent to court in France with her older sister Mary, who is ordered by her parents to seduce the French King Francois I. Later, Mary returns to England and is married to William Carey, and once again ordered by her family to seduce a King, this time Henry VIII. The book ends with Anne returning to her family in England, as England prepares to go to war with France.

I truly enjoyed this book, as I thought it was amazingly researched and well written, and as I mentioned previously, makes Anne Boleyn appear to be observant and quick witted, but never ruthless and cruel as so many portray her. I have a very hard time believing that Anne Boleyn could have been so terrible when her daughter grew up to be quite a sucessful Queen of England. Of all the books about Henry and his wives, I think this one would be the first I would recommend, as I loved watching Anne grow from a smart little girl into a very able young woman, despite her scheming family. And to put it to my most important test, I would definitely reread this one, probably soon!

Book Review: The Other Boleyn Girl

The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory, has been in my library since I read The Queen's Fool, which turned out to be a sequel to this book. I'm pretty sure I finished that one back while I was supposed to be studying for my pharmacy boards, and looking for any reason not too. I enjoyed The Queen's Fool thoroughly, mainly because it was about Queen Elizabeth I, which is a topic I love, but also because it was well written.

The Other Boleyn Girl was just as well written, but with much smaller font. I found that I couldn't speed read through this like I do with most books, because there are so many important characters and if you miss one conversation, or even one line, you can very quickly become lost. The high possibility for confusion would normally be a detriment to a book, at least for me, but I can't really fault the author for this. Everyone in the book was a real person, and all are necessary for the story line, so it would have been impossible to leave them out, even for the sake of the reader.

The story itself is engrossing, mainly because you feel as though you are moving in the inner circles of Henry VIII's court, seeing everything thing through Mary Boleyn's eyes, from her rise and fall as the King's mistress, to the rise and fall of her sister Anne, who became Queen of England. Every detail is there, from how they lived with lice and fleas, to what the ladies-in-waiting wore, and what the court had for dinner. I loved this aspect of the book, and didn't want to put it down.

My only complaint with The Other Boleyn Girl is that Anne Boleyn was painted as quite scheming and evil, whereas Mary Boleyn is the "good" sister, who only does bad things because her family orders her to. I won't go into detail because I'm recommending this book as an awesome read. But I have always been a bit partial to Anne, and have always thought that she was unjustly accused of many crimes, and suffered very harsh punishments. I suppose that she is painted so blackly because when her history was first written, no one wanted to cross the King by saying she had been unjustly treated. Much like many people in history. Regardless of my own personal thoughts on Anne, this book is definitely worth checking out. It kept me reading for two nights, which really says something, as most books I can finish in a matter of hours. I'll be rereading it most certainly, which is the highest praise I can bestow on a book!

Book Review: Last Dance at Jitterbug Lounge

I'll be honest, lately I haven't had much time for what used to be my favorite hobby: reading. Yet I still buy a bunch of books every week, because I have no willpower. Because of this, I have literally an attic full of books, as well as a bookshelf full in both my upstairs hallway and my living room. So when I suddenly felt the urge to indulge in a good book, I had an ample selection.

This week's choice turned out to be Last Dance at Jitterbug Lounge, by Pamela Morsi. I'll be honest, I picked this book out because of the cover, and the description on the back. The book follows two stories, one being the present day romance of a husband and wife, Jack and Claire, who seem on the verge of divorce when Jack's grandfather has a stroke, and they must return to Jack's hometown to take care of him. The second story is that of Jack's grandfather, Bud and his wife, back in the 1940's during WWII. The chapters switch from one storyline to the other, and it keeps things interesting.

I think the reason I enjoyed this book so much was that it's an easy read, like a romance novel, but the writing is a little more developed than your average cheesy romance novel. The story is heartbreaking, as Jack tries to understand his grandfather's life by piecing together stories from all his relatives, and also because Bud's story is told through flashbacks to the war, leaving his wife, and how he suffered after returning home. My only complaint is that the ending seemed rather abrupt...I felt like my copy was missing a chapter. All in all, it was definitely worth reading, and I'll probably read it again.

Fun stuff at Target!

Today the Mothership and I set off for the big city to pick the Aunt up at the airport. Because my favorite route to the airport passes by a brand new Target, naturally we had to stop. I mean, how can you ever pass up Target? Really, how can you? Please let me know!

Anyhow, I had a coupon for an extra 10% off, and went a bit crazy. Can I just say, I LOVE the See.Spot.Save section. I found scrapbooking ribbons, popcicle makers, and greeting cards all for $1.00! I also found adorable croquet and bocce sets for $12.99. Of course, I had to pick up a few Jodi Picoult books:

And then there was my favorite purchase of the day, and the one I've been looking forward to for a few weeks: MarioKart for the Wii.

Now, I haven't played it yet, but expect a full update when I do. MarioKart has been my favorite game for SuperNintendo, Nintendo64, and GameCube, so I'm thinking it'll probably be 4 for 4 with the Wii, too. Although boxing on WiiSports is kind of addictive. Can't wait to try it out!

My New Vegan Breakfast

I recently read the book Skinny Bitch, and have since decided to become a vegetarian, with the ultimate goal of being a vegan. Now, I've put veganism in my 10 year plan, as I'm figuring it will be a really long time before I can give up a toasted Velveeta sandwich, or skip a cool glass of milk with my grandma's awesome chocolate chip cookies. So for the time being, it's regular vegetarian for me. I've lasted 3 days so far (normally, my veggie stints are about 17 hours before I cave) and it's going fairly well.

But the idea of being a vegan is just fascinating to me, because if you think about it, everything has animal products in it. Cookies and cakes have milk and eggs, mozzarella sticks are cheese, even Bush's Baked Beans have bacon in them. So on my last trip to the grocery section of Wal-Mart, I decided to peruse the aisles for vegan fare. I didn't get very far, as Wal-Mart doesn't even stock veggie burgers, but they do have Silk. Now, Silk is a soy-milk product that I've always been terrified to try, since my unfortunate introduction to soy via a nasty tofu burger. But I resolved to try it, and picked out the vanilla flavor, which I thought would go nicely with my favorite granola, Cascadian Farms Oats and Honey. Tonight I tried a little as a desert, and let me tell you, if I hadn't poured the Silk onto the cereal myself, I would have thought it was regular milk. Awesome! Now, if only the soy cheese is as good...

Bottom line:

+ = YUMM!!!