May Books

So I really dropped the ball this month. I only actually started and finished three books so I'll include the others I started but didn't finish as well. Beginning with the ones I completed.

The Replacement- Brenna Yovanoff
I really liked this book. If you've heard of the Changeling in some folklore you know that there were stories of children who were taken in the night and replaced with another child sometimes not human. In this story a human child was taken in the night by undead creatures who lived under the city that used the human children for sacrifce. Most of the time these Changeling children did not live much longer after they were switched except in the case with the main character.

Wanted- Sara Shepard
This is the last in the Pretty Little Liars series. I really enjoyed this series until this last book. It started out fine but when it starts piecing together the clues from all the other books it seems like the author wasn't sure how to connect them so they pulled out the secret twin bit.

The Customer Is Always Wrong- Jeff Martin
I liked this book, I have never worked in retail but have worked with the public since I was 16 so I have had my fair (sometimes unfair) share of awful customers. Currently working in a DMV I deal with this on a daily basis. What I liked most is that the authors of all the essays in the book were authors or journalists who worked in retail before coming into the jobs they have now.

Books I started but did not finish.

The Coke Machine- Michael Blanding
At first I was interested and read a good chunk of the story behind Coke's beginning as a medicine but when it got to the part where the company changed hands it got kind of boring.

Water Wars- Cameron Stracher
I tried to like this book, I really did. It just wasn't what I wanted to be reading at the time. I would like to go back sometime and finish it but my checkout time on my Nook expired.

March and April Books

Ok so I'm a little behind. With all the craziness that is in my house I haven't had a bit of time to sit and write out my books. Now that things have slowed down a bit and I have gotten tired of all the book titles stuck in my Nook that I can no longer read I have decided it is finally time to post my last two months worth of books!

Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang- Chelsea Handler
I LOVED this book! I heard it wasn't as good as her earlier books but I had a blast reading it. I mostly loved how in several stories she tries to talk her boyfriend into getting a shark for their condo! HILARIOUS! I seriously cannot wait for her new book to come out soon.

My Booky Wook- Russell Brand
I was really shocked at how much I didn't like this book. I figured with all the drug use and sex the book would be more interesting to me but alas, it was not. I felt bored through out most of it.

When Did I Get Like This- Amy Wilson
I really enjoyed reading this book. Amy writes stories of raising her three children in such a funny and relate-able way.

Perfect/Unbelievable/Wicked/Killer/Heartless- Sara Shepard
All books in the Pretty Little Liars series. Loved them all! I think I read each of them in 2 days at work.

Excited

Oh so I really enjoy reading books but rarely do I get excited to the point of wanting to drop everything else I'm reading for one single book. That all ends today. I actually ordered a real book instead of a nook book. What is that you ask, well that book would be The Way I See It A Personal Look At Autism and Asperger's by Temple Grandin. My little guy Max was diagnosed in September with Autism and has been absolutely amazing with all he's done since we started in the Early Intervention program we have here. Now he's almost 3 and about to age out of the program and into the school districts pre-school for children with learning disabilities. I was encouraged by his speech therapist to read some of Temple's books and this will be my first. Obviously I'm pretty excited because I hope to find out a little bit more of how my son's mind works.

February Books

Here are February’s books. There aren’t very many this month, I’ll blame it on the short month and the fact that we’ve been SUPER busy at work lately.

The Lovely Bones- Alice Sebold

So I kind of have a theme, I LOVE books that are movies/TV shows or ones that are going to be made into one or the other. I watched this movie last year and really didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. I had also tried to read Alice Sebold’s book based on her own experience with rape and I just couldn’t finish so I was a little surprised at how good the first half of this book was. Towards the end I kind of lacked the motivation to finish but made it through.

The Naked Lady Who Stood On Her Head- Gary Small

This was a really interesting read. Dr Small writes stories of past patients and their odd behaviors.

Manic- Terri Cheney

This book is about Terri’s battle with Manic Depression and how she went from one extreme to the other and how her father dealt with her illness and how she spiraled out of control after his death.

January Books

So I’ve decided to *try* and keep track of all the books I’ve read each month. Here is a list for January 2011 in no particular order.

Down Came The Rain by Brooke Shields.

I was unsure about this book at first. I actually wanted to read it for a while but it was one I was a bit embarrassed to let anyone see me with. So when I got my nook I was quite excited because now I could read all the things, trashy or not, I wanted but wasn’t going to in front of people. What I liked about this book is that Brooke Shields seems to be very open about her experiences with Post Partum Depression. I was shocked to find out she had infertility issues and was hooked on her sorrowful tale of wanting a child so badly and then when she finally got her wish not being able to handle the major life changes that come with actually getting what she wanted.

My Fair Lazy- Jen Lancaster

Oh Jen how I love you so. I love reading her books so much because they make me laugh so hard. EVERY. FREAKIN. TIME. This has to be one of my favorites of hers.

Just Kids- Patty Smith

I have no idea what made me want to read about a singer I really don’t know much about. I read a review in Entertainment Weekly and thought it sounded interesting. I wasn’t so sure in the beginning of the book and had a few thoughts about stopping but didn’t. I really knew very little about Patty and her friend Robert but enjoyed their story of trying to make something of themselves as artists in the time of the Beat Generation.

The Help- Kathryn Stockett

I loved this book. For some reason these characters sucked me in. I really enjoyed these women’s stories and watching them fight back against the prejudice that they endured as maids in 1962. I was surprised to read that the main maid character was based on the authors’ maid growing up. She was such a strong person and really key to the story of them fighting back.

Pretty Little Liars-Sara Shepard

This book is the basis for one of the trashy shows I became addicted to last year. I really enjoyed the story and it was a very quick read. As usual I enjoyed to book more than the tv series and found that they had merged the first two books to make the first season of the show.

Flawless- Sara Shepard

This is the second book in the Pretty Little Liars series. I wasn’t as into this one as I was the first but enjoyed continuing the story of the girls trying to find who was pretending to be their dead best friend who threatens to tell everyone their worst secrets.

Room- Emma Donoghue

This was another book I had read a review for in Entertainment Weekly. It is the story of a woman and her young son who are trapped in an old shed by a man they call Old Nick. At first you learn about their daily routine and then discover how they came to be in that shed. Soon the mother comes up with a plan to escape and when they do you see the boys reaction to being in the outside world away from the home he knew since birth.

Mockingjay- Suzanne Collins

I was kind of disappointed in this book. I really enjoyed the first Hunger Games but it took me a while to get into the second book, Catching Fire, and it took me a while to get in to this one as well, I think it may have been due to me not reading them one after the other. It had been a good while between reading the second and the third. I am glad I started and finished them though. I had read from a few sources they were the “new twilight” but I don’t see them quite as good

Surprise Baby Shower

Here are some photos from the baby shower I threw with my mom for my brother and his girlfriend. I absolutely cannot wait to meet this little girl! Everything was a surprise for the guest of honor since this will make her third child she didn't want one but since my mom and I were not around for the first we wanted to do something special for her and my brother. I think everything turned out great and I got so many compliments on the cupcakes.

Gettin' Crafty With It.

Oh so very soon my brother's family will be welcoming a new baby girl into the world. Next weekend my mom and I will be throwing her a surprise baby shower and I decided that I wanted to make her a little something special. I have ventured in making onesies before with good and bad luck. I found some super cute ribbon a few weeks ago at Big Lots and decided that I would play around with making hair bows too. These are what I came up with. Everything was super easy. I used Velcro for the backs of the hair bows (hoping that baby has lots of hair!). The tie-dye ribbon I attached to the onesie with fabric glue and washed it after 24 hours to make sure the ribbon stayed on. The bows for both onesie's I hand sewed and also washed to make sure they stayed put! I had so much fun making the bows and even my husband commented on how nice the tie-dye one looked!