Cremes

I ran out of cute ways to name these entries. I’m obviously running out of steam on this whole thing!

1. SPT Buy, Buy Baby - Susan Gregory Thomas
2. STR Breaking Free - Beth Moore
3. GFT The Lucky One - Nicholas Sparks

I’m up to 76 books. That leaves 24 to go to reach the big 100. I’m starting to think that just ain’t going to happen. I was doing 12 books a month or so when I had the time (and the fervor) so I know it’s doable (and at that rate I should have reached 100 by August). It does stink a tad though because I was cruising along and got loads of great books read. (Also some real duds, but oh well.) The reason I didn’t finish any audiobooks this month is because I’m in the middle of a huge one and I’m also not in the car as much as I used to be when I had a commute every day. I’m on disc 8 of Pillars of the Earth, which is one of the most ginormous books I’ve ever read. I think the only book that equals its length is Harry Potter 5, and even that one falls short by about 100 pages.

Buy, Buy Baby was really interesting. I think I read it rather quickly considering how much junk I have going on. I definitely won’t think of children’s products as benign anymore, and while I can’t see myself totally boycotting the industry, I think it’s good to be aware of these things and then teach your children correctly. And also try to avoid helping them be blind consumers.

Breaking Free was a fabulous book that had lots of great insights in it, and I think I may read it again next year but get the journal that goes with it and then do it slowly over the course of a month. I’ll probably do her book Believing God first since I already have that journal, and I just got another of her books the other day that I’m excited to dive into. I wish that I had waited on Breaking Free though because since I’m doing another Bible study at the same time I wasn’t able to take it all in. Oh well, my copy is so water damaged that I won’t be trading it!

And the new Nicholas Sparks book was great. He totally redeemed himself for Dear John and The Choice, which were depressing beyond words. This one reminded me of some of his older books and it just captured that romance and loveliness that the other ones had.

Right now, I’m reading Son of A Witch by Gregory Maguire and really enjoying it. I hadn’t realized that I was reading it on Halloween, but I guess that is somewhat fitting. I have a ton of Christmasy books coming in too, that I’m excited about starting over the holiday season. I’m all set (internally) for Christmas, and I can’t wait for my reading material to reflect that.

Only 3 more months left and that mean only three more recaps until my year is over. I’ve pretty much dropped the ball and I’m only doing these recaps out of habit now. I think for next year I’ll just have a page on the side bar that links to what I’m reading and maybe I’ll have an occasional post on my thoughts on a book. For now, I’ll keep the tradition going, even though it seems to be for naught.

1. PBS Love The One You’re With - Emily Giffin
2. SPT Unauthorized Biography of Tom Cruise - Andrew Morton
3. PBS Inside my Heart - Robin McGraw [audio]

I actually thought I was going to get a lot more reading done this month, but Hurricane Ike threw a wrench into my plans. I am halfway through three library school texts books, so if you count that I’ve been reading like a fool. I also started more books than I could finish this month.

You’ll probably notice that I put the Giffin book up there again this month, since I actually finished it in September, not August. I figured the two other selections would be lonely. I’m up to #73. I could still make it to 100 if I pick up the pace. And I’m actually quite caught up in school related things, so I may even have some extra time for fun reading.

As for this month’s finished books, the Giffin book was subpar as I mentioned. The Tom Cruise book was pretty much a scathing report on his religion. I actually didn’t find it that great. There was lots of dirt, yes, but first you have to wonder if any of it is true because he doesn’t cite any sources (or very few) and only provides a ’selected’ bibliography in the back (what’s up with that?). The Robin McGraw book was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I’m actually considering keeping it instead of trading it back. It was pretty inspirational, and I love her accent. I might even pick up her newer one.

I’ve been thinking that now that I have more time to devote to blogging and reading I might make some website tweaks. It’s not really fleshed out yet, but I would like to spend more time being creative on the web. I’ve been meaning to make some changes for awhile, mostly to the main page of the site, but I just haven’t gotten off my tushy yet.

This month’s recommendations:

• Inside My Heart

Man, where did the time go?

1. PBS So Much for My Happy Ending - Kyra Davis
2. PBS Over Her Dead Body - Kate White
3. PBS Playing For Pizza - John Grisham
4. GFT The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini [audio]
5. PBS Love The One You’re With - Emily Giffin

So I didn’t read very much but at this point I will be amazed if I make it to the end of the year with 100. So Much for My Happy Ending was sort of bizarre but very unique. After I finished the Emily Giffin book (check out her first two novels, Something Borrowed and Something Blue for the best reading experience EVER), I felt like they were pretty much two sides of the same story. Girl meets boy, girl loves boy, girl marries boy, boy turns out to be a weirdo, other boy comes into the mix… They just ended differently. Over Her Dead Body was a little murder mystery that is apparently several books along in a series (but it worked well as a stand alone) and Playing For Pizza was about a washed-up NFL player who has a little Italian adventure, a la Eat Pray Love. (Grisham said in an interview on The Colbert Report that there were no lawyers in it - lies.) And my one audio book this month was a pretty famous one. The Kite Runner was a solid story, but sort of depressing. Khaled Hosseini’s books are probably better in audio form because you get the real gist of the story through the accent.

All of my books this month were fiction. I’ve changed it up this month; first book I started was the unauthorized biography of Mr Cruise. I should probably finish off those books that have been collecting dust on my “currently reading” section on the page about my reading resolution. Like that cosmetics encycopedia. Yeesh. With all of my school reading, I don’t even know where I find the time.

I just realized that the last book I only finished yesterday, not in August. Whatever. I may include it again next month just for giggles.

This month’s recommendations:

• The Kite Runner

I’m not sure why I’m even bothering to keep up with this, it’s mostly for my own enjoyment I guess.

1. ARC Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity - Kerry Cohen
2. GFT Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur’s Soul - edited by Jack Canfield
3. GFT Tuesdays With Morrie - Mitch Albom [audio]
4. GFT Getting Things Done - David Allen

But hey, 1 more book than last month! Technically, I only really read 2 of those books in July. Chicken Soup and GTD were finished this month, but I read the bulk of them over the last couple of months. I’m about to start a second Chicken Soup book (great for those random few minutes that break up the day) and I’ve downloaded It’s All Too Much from the Houston library. I also randomly picked up a novel on Saturday and started reading, and I’m already 150 pages in. (Novels go by so much faster than non-fiction.) I wrote a review for Loose Girl and posted it on my Library Thing profile. I was meaning to jazz it up a little bit (make it less review-y) and post it here but never got around to it. It’s on my to-do list. I guess I’m feeling the reading bug more these days, and since I’ve made such great progress on my magazines stack (8 magazines read, scanned and ready to be recycled!) I’ve been wanting to get through my stack of books.

This Month’s Recommendations:

• Tuesdays With Morrie

So I’m not even going to bother putting a jump (”more…” link) on this one. Three books, ya’ll. But hey, they were all great ones.

1. PBS The Nanny Diaries - Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus [audio]
2. LIB Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? - Peter Walsh [audio]
3. GFT Sunday’s at Tiffany’s - James Patterson [audio]

I’m planning to start Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett soon which is a MONSTER of a book. 42 CDs. I can’t fit the entire audio book on my computer it’s so big. And it’s taking me a long time to transfer it to my iPod, so at the rate I’m going it will be August before I start it. If you check out my reading resolution page you can see I’m still reading the same books I was reading back in May. I’m really trying to get through GTD but it’s so boring. I read a few pages here and there, but it’s slow going. And no, I can’t just scrap it. It’s actually very useful and helpful, the writing just needs to be jazzed up (a lot). I actually put a hold on my Paperback Swap account because I not only have too much going on to mail books out, I’ve run out of room to house the books I’m receiving. And when a wish list item becomes available, I have no willpower. So I’m going to try and work down my book shelf but it’s harder than I thought. I don’t think summer is a good reading season unless you get to plunk down on a beach towel for several weeks.

This month’s recommendations:

• Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?

Oops.

I knew that I was running out of steam on this whole book thing, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t think I’m going to get to any goal that I’ve set out. I’m still going to keep track, but I’ve been falling way behind on my “schedule” of sorts, and I’m just needing more variety in entertainment these days. Not to mention, I got a Nintendo DS and I’m wanting to spend some time playing with it, and we’ve just been really busy in general. Anyways, here we go for May.

(more…)

So hurray! Another month of books and I haven’t given up yet! I really thought there was danger of that last month, I spent a fair chunk of time reading and was ready to stop. Despite the fact that I spent more time doing things besides reading, I still managed to get several reads in. The biggest slowdown this month was one particular book that took me forever. Also, I ended up getting some new albums recently (Tara MacLean and Donna Lewis! Yay!) so instead of listening to audio books at work and in the car, I chose my new tunes. I’m sorta getting overwhelmed with books though, so I hope that I can get back into the game for May and up those numbers again. Here we go. (more…)

My mini-goal this month was to beat last months’ 12 books record. I do think that I got quite a few books read, both audio and paperback. I was kind of on a fiction kick this month, and I even bought a book that I had been looking forward to for quite a while. I’m starting to run low on audio books (got two left!) so I’m planning to go to a different library and see what they have. There are quite a few audio books that I’m interested in on my Paperback Swap queue but they just move so slowly. I wish I could do that Simply Audiobooks service, but it’s just too expensive for what they offer. Anyways, without further ado, here’s March’s recap. (more…)

I thought that I had done pretty badly this month, but it turns out that I hit another 12 books this month. Which is crazy, considering I not only had less time to read, but I spent most of the month sick! That means I’m currently up to 24 (25 if you count the book I finished today). I had lots of neat books in February’s list, but as usual there were a few bummer ones. My audio books this month were definitely on the lackluster side, because my stash from the library is getting depleted. I did order a bunch from Paperback Swap though, so most of those seem to be a lot more interesting. Without further ado, here’s February’s reads: (more…)

So it’s been the first month of my book reading resolution. I’ve managed to read 12 books so far. I think that’s pretty decent. Of course, I’ve spent several evenings and lunch hours studying for my GRE instead of reading, so until I’ve finished with that, it’s sort of out of my hands. And then probably once I start school again all my reading time will go out the window. I remember not really loving that when I was in school, I rarely had a chance to do any fun reading because I was always reading long essays and books for school. Anyways, here’s the January wrap-up. (more…)