whatcha readin'? 2019 {book 18::goal 25}

I bought this book on a whim
at a book sale…
I feel like I had seen it around the
internet world and the blogosphere
so thought I would give it a go…

Plus…I like orange.
Heehee.

It was a good book. I don’t regret reading it
but it was kind of up and down for me.
There were moments that I loved it
and it made me laugh out loud
and I thought it was very clever…

but then there were moments that I got
completely bogged down by the politics
and confused on who was who and
what was why and where is that one going
with who?

But I also read this in starts and stops
so that may have been my own fault.

And, for some reason, it reminded me a bit of Forrest Gump.

& speaking of movies, apparently this has been turned into one.

4 out of 5 ♥♥♥♥s
NEXT UP:: A HOUSE IN THE SKY - AMANDA LINDHOLM

whatcha readin'? 2019 {book 17::goal 25}

oh.

Kristin Hannah is one of my
new
favorite authors.

This book made me cry.

In the notes that I keep as I am reading a book
I wrote
that I recognized
qualities of myself
in the mom…just a little bit…
tiny bits and pieces of me here and there
shards of self identity…

And I loved the characters.
The vast and wild description of Alaska.
The reasons behind why we stay
and why we leave.
Home and all it encompasses.

I now want to read everything by her.

5 out of 5 broken ♥♥♥♥♥’s
NEXT UP:: THE 100 YEAR OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT THE WINDOW & DISAPPEARED - JONAS JONASSON

whatcha readin'? 2019 {book 16::goal 25}

I don’t even know where or how I heard of this book…
but I am sooooo glad that I did.

I loved this book.
The intricate threads tying each person together
in ways I didn’t expect,
the backstory,
the reasoning behind the reasons…

But Kate & Peter’s story…well….
Kate’s story…
the creeping realization, the gradual descent into…
the delayed reactions and then the subsequent
futile motions of trying to figure out where it all
went wrong, of how to fix it, to apply rational logic
to something that defies logic & is completely
out of your control…
well.

That made me cry.

Because I saw myself in that.
I saw me.
As clear and as sharp as looking in a mirror.
I saw me.

So my opinion on this book may be a little biased
because of that….I suspect you are either drawn to
or run away screaming from
what you recognize in yourself….depending on the day.

On this day, it felt good to be understood,
if only by a fictional character in a book with a name
I can never seem to remember.

Also, I wrote this note after reading it:

“The only secret to love is to be kind” found in the acknowledgements.
♥

5 out of 5 broken ♥♥♥♥♥
NEXT UP:: THE GREAT ALONE - KRISTIN HANNAH

whatcha readin'? 2019 {book 15::goal 25}

I wanted to love this book.
I really, really did.

I love Amy Tan’s writing
and there were parts in this that made me
stop and take notice,
made me stop
so I could say the words out loud…
like this:

“Through writing, I dive into wonderment and come up
with corpses, whale sharks, pirates, and the head of a rose.”

Sigh.

And I love memoirs.
Especially writer’s memoirs.
I want to see how their brain works,
take out the pieces, bit by bit
and examine them under a microscope…
to study the synapses, the fires and misfires,
wondering how did you get here from
there.

But this one, well, maybe I was too hopeful.

There is no easy, nice way to say it…
I struggled off and on with the book
but the letters to her editor
just completely lost me…
I finished it only so that I could say that I finished it
and that’s not how you want to finish a book.

2.5 out of 5 ♥♥♥♥♥’s
NEXT UP:: ASK AGAIN, YES - MARY BETH KEANE

whatcha readin'? 2019 {book 14::goal 25}

I wanted to love this book.

I really did.

If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time,
you probably know that I like books like this…
I like how to’s and suggestions and lists and motivation.

What I did like:
♥ her no-nonsense suck it up deal with it this-is-up-to-you-to-change attitude.
I like people who are little bit tough love.
somedays. somedays…I want to throat punch them.
It’s a fine line.

♥ Her references to the wizard of oz and Dorothy

♥ That she talked about the struggle of quitting diet coke…
Uh….yeah…I get that (as I pop a can in the freezer just now so I can have it before bed).

♥ Her red converse sneakers

♥ She’s kinda adorable.

What I didn’t like:

• It was a little too religion based for me.
  This was not her fault…it was an oversight of mine.
  I didn’t realize when I got it that this was a large part of where
  she was coming from. And I am not against religion…it’s just…
  not my thing…

• That was pretty much it….I mean…some of it is a little cliched..
  but no more than any other book in this type of genre that I have read.
  I went into it expecting that to some degree.

All in all…I enjoyed the book. I felt like I got something out of it.
If I feel I have to take notes while reading something, then…that
feels like a worthwhile read to me and I definitely did take notes while
reading this. I do recommend it. Just go into it with an open mind.

3.5 out of 5 ♥♥♥♥♥’s
NEXT UP:: WHERE THE PAST BEGINS - AMY TAN