books

I finally read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn after having it on my To Read list for several months. I finished it in just two days, which always happens when I really like a book. Typically I don’t bug Ken about the books I’m reading, but this one was worthy of conversation. I told him that they really need to make the book into a movie. Sure enough as I was flipping through my US Weekly magazine two days later when I found this article:

Unfortunately I read it wrong the first time. I had excitedly proclaimed to Ken, “You are never going to believe who is going to be in the movie adaptation of Gone Girl…my favorite actor and actress of all time!” Well as you can see if you read it, Reese Witherspoon is producing the film, not acting in it. Oh well. But Ben oh Ben. THIS is going to be good.

I ended up doing a little Google search to see some of the women they are considering for the female lead; Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman and Emily Blunt. Out of those 3 I think Emily Blunt would be the best choice.

My thoughts on the book, without giving anything away…

I seriously despised both of the lead characters the first half of the book. The chapters flip back and forth between Nick and Amy writing in first person. At first I couldn’t figure out if I hated the Flynn’s writing style or I hated the characters. It was the characters. Don’t get me wrong, the writing is quite unique. I’m used to reading a variety of books; some young adult books, a lot of dystopian settings, and a little bit of mystery and romance mixed in. Gillian Flynn’s writing style is quite complex. Very direct, sort of abrasive, but good. It is the sort of writing where you know you have to read every sentence through so you don’t miss a thing. No skimming here.

Nick and Amy are crazy individuals. They’re married, but pretty much hate one another. They blame one another for their unhappiness and unfulfilling life and they go out of their way to make the other pay, big time. It was like they are married to one another but never really knew each other at all. I hated Nick and his selfish ways so much I thought he deserved everything coming to him. But then Amy, it’s like wow – how does someone end up this way? It wasn’t difficult to predict a lot of what was happening, but you are not left with two seconds to even think about it because everything happens so quickly. I love when books keep my thoughts spinning like that. I’m curious in how they are going to make the movie even half as good as the book since the best parts are when Nick and Amy are describing the thoughts in their heads…rather than anything actually happening. If that makes sense?

I am already 3/4’s of the way through Divergent by Veronica Roth. A young adult trilogy set in a dystopian Chicago where society is split into 5 factions or ways of living. When you turn 16 you are able to choose if you want to continue living with your family in their current faction or choose one of your own. It a really entertaining story and I just picked up book 2 of the Trilogy tonight along with two other books to take with me on vacation. (I prefer to take paperbacks when travelling.)Insurgent is the second book of the series and then I picked up the first two books of the Breathless Trilogy – Rush and Fever. The books have been compared to the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy – I’ll let you know what I think.

I read Gone Girl on my iPad, but for some reason I have been just loving have actual books to read here lately. Which do you prefer? Books or eBooks?

I’m loving summer right now. Everything feels so laid back and relaxed. Thursday we took the kids to the drive-in to see Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University. Both of the movies were really good. Despicable Me 2 was hilarious and Monsters University, while not quite as funny, was a cute story with the usual amazing Pixar animation.

Friday evening I started watching Orange is the New Black on Netflix and I have to say it’s really good. It’s about a women who spends a year in prison after getting wrapped up with some drug dealer. If you have a Netflix membership all 13 episodes are available to watch. I guess it’s a Netflix original series and heads up – it’s NOT for kids.

Then I decided to finally take the plunge and download Entwined with You on my iPad. It’s the third book of what was supposed to be a Trilogy, but now is a series of at least 2 more books. I was nervous reading it because I didn’t want to be disappointed because a lot of people were giving it bad reviews. I’m thinking many of the negative reviews came from people who were angry that the trilogy is now a series. But come one, that is like being told Twilight is now going to have 2 more books as part of their series. That would be AMAZING! Anyways, Entwined with You was very good. I finished it in two days and I couldn’t put it down. BUT I do have a couple of complaints. Without spoiling the story for anyone I will say that I didn’t feel like there was much substance to the actual storyline. When I was done reading it I didn’t feel like a whole lot happened. There was very little character development and it felt like the story ended too abruptly. It just didn’t stop at a good place. Like possibly the author wrote too long of a book and someone just picked random chapter to cut it and make it into two books. At any rate, I’m not going to hesitate to read the next book whenever it’s released. I’m hooked!

Saturday Karli and I went to a few garage sales and while we didn’t find much (she was looking for Monster High dolls mostly), Karli was thrilled to have found this mom and baby Artic White Fox set. Her favorite animal of all time! At least until she changes her mind again.

Sunday we went to a Polish Festival for lunch and then chilled the rest of the day. I had to rerecord my “What’s on my iPhone” video because the first one was not in focus. This darn Canon T3i! While I love it dearly, the video camera isn’t as easy to use as a regular camcorder. You have to manually focus the camera when recording video, which is fine, but someway somehow I think it is in focus when looking at it through the view finder, but then when I upload it to my camera it’s not focused enough. Even this recording could have been a little bit more in focus. Oh well, I’m doing my best and hopefully I will get better as time goes on :)

 
I haven’t been reading as much as I would like to here lately, so my “To Read” list is rapidly growing. I thought I would share with you all the books that I would like to read this year. I only read 12 books last year and all of that reading was in spurts. Such as reading the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy in like a week and reading 4 books while I was on vacation in November. My favorites were (besides the Fifty Shades because yes, I enjoyed them) were the first two books of the Crossfire series – Bared to You and Reflected in You. They are similar to Fifty Shades but even better in my opinion. The main female character in that series would be a perfect match for the main male character in Fifty Shades actually. I also really liked the first two books in the Delirium series, Delirium and Pandemonium (Delirium). They are a young adult series, quick reads, and pretty intriguing story where the government “cures” people from feeling love. The third book in the series comes out in March and is on my “bookshelf” of course!

In no particular order… my TO READ list consists of:

Drinking and Tweeting: And Other Brandi Blunders – Brandi Glanville / She is famous for losing her husband to Leann Rimes and being one of the catty moms on the Real Housewives and I love her. Can’t wait to read this one for some good trashy gossip. {Biography}

Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn / I’m on a list of about 100 hundred other people waiting for this book at my library. I’ll probably break down and purchase it for my iPad. Seems like this one is on everyone’s Must Read list.

The Book Thief – Markus Zusak / This book has been popping up in people’s favorites list for years. Someday I will get around to seeing what the hype is all about.

Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese / Another favorite that I added just because I don’t want to feel left out.

Entwined with You (A Crossfire Novel) – Sylvia Day / Book 3 of the Crossfire Series and it’s not going to be out until June now. First it was going to be March and then May and now June. WOW, it better be good!

Requiem – Lauren Oliver / Book 3 of the Delirium Series – out on March 5th. Can’t wait! I may just buy this one since I have the first two books in my possession and sell them off to someone. Let me know if you are interested.

Divergent & Insurgent – Veronica Roth / I bought the first two books of this series but haven’t gotten around to reading them yet. It’s another young adult series about a dystopian world.

The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern / I’ve had this one on my to read list forever. I’ve come real close to buying it a few times, but something else has always looked better.

The Language of Flowers – Vanessa Diffenbaugh / Another pretty popular book that I have been meaning to read for awhile now.

So what is on your To Read list for this year? Anything that I should add to my list?

Are you on Goodreads? Add me as a friend if so!

If I had a ounce of the writing capability of John Green I would be overjoyed. The Fault in Our Stars was one of the best books I’ve ever read. There is no way I could even put into words the amazingness of this book. But I’ll try… Hazel, who has thyroid cancer and wheels an oxygen tank with her everywhere she goes, meets Augustus at a cancer support group. Their relationship makes Edward and Bella’s story seem childish. They talk to one another in a very sweet, but intellectual language and it is so honest and real I found myself tearing up just by the littlest things they would say to each other. They don’t seem like typical teenagers, but then really they aren’t because of all they have been through battling cancer. The relationships that Hazel and Augustus have with their parents is very touching as well. The most heart wrenching part of the story is how Hazel is more worried about leaving her parents childless than she is about dying. The same reason why she won’t allow herself to get romantically involved with Augustus is she doesn’t want to hurt him when she dies.

For me every chapter had such significance, not just for the story, but for my own personal thoughts and feelings. It took me awhile to finish the book because I did stop reading many times just to gather my thoughts and clear my head before moving on. I couldn’t tell you how many times I caught myself having to reread a page because I couldn’t stop focusing on just a single sentence from the previous page. Life is such a privilege and there is so many things we take for granted. You can’t help but ask yourself what you might do differently in your own life if you knew your time was limited. The scary thought is our time is limited, whether it be tomorrow, next year, or 30 years…it’s never going to be enough.

I’m thinking I might reread the book before I take it back to the library, at least some of my favorite parts. It was that good. One of my favorite lines “You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world…but you do have some say who hurts you.”

Daily Nuggets

–> Going to my 4th Zumba class tonight…loving it so far!

–> Wednesdays are my best days to film videos but right now this is what I have going on in my family room. Trying to get my kids sports books updated!

I am seriously addicted to the library again. I go through spurts because I do love reading on my ipad, but every since I went on vacation and bought a bunch of paperbacks to take with me, I have loved picking out books. Honestly I have checked out quite a few book since December that I ended up not reading and taking back. Kind of like when you go to the grocery store when you are hungry and get too much junk food. When I am in the mood to read I tend to bring home more books than I have time for.

Currently reading: My latest trip included the John Green novel that so many people have read – The Fault in Our Stars. It’s about a teenage girl that has cancer and she meets a boy at a cancer support group and they fall in love. I’m really wondering if there is something to me enjoying young adult books? I’m not sure if it’s because the books have more interesting topics to me most of the time of what. Also, if you don’t know who John Green is – he is not only an author, but a YouTuber, one of the famous Vlog Brothers.

To read list:
Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick – book #2 of the Hush, Hush series.
Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick – book #3 of the Hush, Hush series.
The Beach House by Jane Green – one of those books that was propped up on a top of a shelf and I just picked it up.

What are you reading this month?
If you post books reviews/recommendations on your blog, please let me know!

Daily Nuggets

–> I got my iMac back already, so posting some more videos soon…so excited! I was able to watch a movie today while working instead of Gossip Girl on my iPad.

–> Two weeks of no caffeine (again!) and some days I am still so tired during the day. It’s hard to get going so early without the extra push. But I’m doing it!

I could spend hours scanning through books at the library, especially when it gets me out of sitting at Karli’s cramped dance studio. Really I was on a mission to find a couple of paperback books for vacation. (OMG, I can’t believe it’s almost here already, so excited!) I don’t want to take my iPad out to the pool and have to worry about someone snagging it while I am visiting the swim up bar repeatedly. I have to be honest, laying at the pool or on the beach reading a book is like one of the top things I am looking forward to. I care more about that then visiting the “rocks” as I like to call the various sites to see in Cancun.

I haven’t purchased any real books in awhile so I thought I would wander through the aisles trying to find some of the books on my “To Read” list on Goodreads. It was so awesome, I could pick up a book and scan the ISBN number on the back with my phone and the reviews/ratings from Goodreads would pop up. Unfortunately I was coming up on empty even though I did find several of the books I’ve been wanting to read, but they were all huge heavy hardbacks. I found a few books by Kristin Hannah and Erin Hilderbrand. I even found a few by an author I’ve been meaning to check out – Lisa Gardner. But like I said, all hardbacks. So finally I googled (don’t laugh) “Books like Twilight or Hunger Games” because let’s be real, I haven’t loved any series of books as much as I’ve loved those books. Not to mention I will be seeing Breaking Dawn Part 2 prior to vacation and would love to follow that up with something mushy love story that involves some sort of creature or event that would never happen in real life.

I ended up only finding one paperback- the first book of the series Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. Upon reading the description it sounds pretty similar to Twilight, but I’m okay with that. I like writers who are trying to one up Twilight. How sweet of them to put out the effort to try and write a book better than the best Trilogy written EVER!!

The library had two of the other books in the series, but they were hardcover as well. I’m thinking I’ll just make a trip to Target and pick up a couple of paperbacks. I’ve been meaning to try out the first books of a couple of other young adult series that I keep hearing about. One is Divergent by Veronica Roth and the other is Delirium by Lauren Oliver. Has anyone read any of these series before I go buy them? Feedback please!

Now that I have finished the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy I feel like I need to at least give a final review.
In a nutshell:
Book One – Awesome
Book Two – Even Better
Book Three – Somewhat disappointing

The plot of book three was not quite as addicting as the first two books. Everything became a bit repetitive, especially the sex scenes. I was so bored reading those parts that I actually found myself skipping ahead and sparing myself from reading the same thing over and over. With that being said, I still liked the trilogy overall and was not surprised to read today that the books are going to be made into movies. However I was very surprised to read that the author received 5 million dollars to bring the books to the big screen. Wow. Wonder how much Stephenie Meyer received for the Twilight saga then? My guess would be 20 times as much.

More importantly…who do you think should play the sexy control freak Christian Grey?

My top 3 picks:

Bradley Cooper

Ben Affleck

Jake Gyllenhaal

Who do you think should play Christian Grey?

Okay, I am so confused and can not seem to research this book fast enough! It all started Tuesday morning when I recorded Good Morning America so I could listen to the interview of rejected Linzi. I ended up watching the segment on this crazy popular trilogy of books called Fifty Shades, which I had never heard of until then. The books are being referred to as mommy porn and well, sex sells right? The first book is Fifty Shades of Grey it’s 528 pages and I read it in two days. O.M.G. Even last night during these crazy storms where my daughter couldn’t quite possibly sit any closer to me…I couldn’t put my iPad down. Then last night I went up to bed my eyes were getting heavy so I finally gave in and went to sleep with 93% of the book finished. Something woke me up at 4am and I actually finished the book and then went back to sleep.

I have already purchased book 2 on my Ipad – Fifty Shades Darker and plan on diving in as soon as I feed these munchkins of mine.

I read some of the reviews on Amazon and GoodReads on the first book and I am finding that people either love this book or hate it, with probably 75% loving it.

Supposedly…and this is where I am just so shocked, the basis of the books come from Fan Fiction for the Twilight books. If you don’t know what Fan Fiction is, basically it’s where people take books and create their own stories from characters or settings from other published books. The author, EL James, had created fan fiction from Twilight called – Master of the Universe. It was based on Edward and Bella set several years into the future. Basically Edward and Bella – the sex story. There are even pretty racy videos on Youtube, just do a search. Apparently her writing received such a large following that she was advised to take the writings off the internet and turn them into books. However the Fifty Shades Trilogy has no mention of vampires. The author had to rewrite much of the Fan Fiction to make sure the books did not resemble the Twilight series. And honestly I would have never connected the two myself. If anything I kept thinking of a Rated X version of Pretty Woman, minus the whole hooker thing.

Sure there is the withdrawn, sexy, wealthy, controlling, broken Christian (sound like Edward?) and the desperate, inexperienced, immature, insecure Anastasia (umm, Bella much?)…but the story just doesn’t ring Twilight to me. It is much different and moves much faster than Twilight. It certainly doesn’t take 4 books for these two to have sex for the first time. You The “mommy porn” as people are calling it is written very well (and not really that bad, I guess that will depend on the person though), but some other parts of the book are very repetitive (like the words that Ana and Christian use to communicate with one another) and really just odd for lack of a better word. But there is something about the characters and their obsessive relationship that make you keep reading and reading and never wanting to stop. I dare ya, give it a shot. You’ll be hooked too!

Good luck trying to find the books in print, they are sold out everywhere, including Amazon. If you have an e-reader, you are in luck. $30 (for all 3 e-books) is worth to me. Now I’m just trying to decide if I should keep visualizing Christian as the guy that I have imagined for the past 528 pages or if I should switch to Edward?? Tough decision.