Category Archives: Books

My thoughts on books I’ve read

The Notebook

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I’m back once again with yet another book review. At some point there will be more real life posts, but since I am sort of behind on my reading goal this year I thought that I would try and use the month of March to catch up. It also doesn’t hurt that the Creating & Co book club is also having a readathon month where we attempt to clear books of our book shelves.

I’m pretty sure that I hadn’t read The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks before though I will admit that I have read quite a bit of his books in the past. I do know that I have read the follow-up to this called The Wedding several years back. I’m glad that the Paper & Glam bookclub made both books their February read and that I got to read both in succession. After reading the book and then watching the movie, which is currently on Netflix. I think that I honestly like the book better.

In case you haven’t heard of this book or the movie, here’s a quick synopsis Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson have a summer romance in the North Carolina town where Noah was raised. Then circumstances beyond their control tear them apart for several years until in 1945 Allie comes unexpectedly back into Noah’s life. Flash forward years later and Noah as an old man is reading their love story to Allie hoping for a miracle that she’ll remember since she has been living with early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

I loved the story to pieces, I think what really did it was the way that Noah never gave up on Allie even though her disease affected her memory in such a tremendous way. It takes great patience and perseverance to keep doing something so simple like reading and being with someone like that everyday. This is the love story that people hope for and this is a classic Nicholas Sparks book that has made him the romance author of this time.

Let me know if you have read The Notebook or watched the movie starring Rachel McAddams and Ryan Gosling. I hope to see you soon.

Red Rising

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I know that you just read a book review from me the other day, but hey I am finally in a good place with my reading and that’s great for my goal for this year. It also means that I may have finally gotten out of the reading slump I was in. In case you haven’t noticed today’s review is going to be on Red Rising by Pierce Brown. I decided to read this book on the recommendation of Rachel Dawson and it was definitely worth the read.

The basic synopsis for the book is that as humans we are now living on Mars and we still have a class system, which is much worse than we have now, in the book we are now divided into classes called by colors. A boy named Darrow is born into the color Red and believes that this will be forever be his life. His wife, Eo has other plans and due to her dreams and hopes for Darrow, it gets her killed. Darrow is nearly killed also, but his Uncle Narol has given him away to the Sons of Ares. The Sons of Ares are a group that has been trying to cause an uprising that will change the fate of the world that Darrow knows. Once taken in by the Sons of Ares Darrow is remade to become a Gold and go to school to learn to become a general of armies. The majority of the book takes place at school in which all the students are divided into armies named after Roman gods and told to conquer, fight, and be the one left standing.

After we got through the intro and Darrow was taken into school , I found that the book reminded me quite a bit of the Hunger Games, in which there can only be one Primus/ winner and that person will get the ultimate prize. I can give you a few clues on how the story ends since this is book one in a series. I would also like to say that I am planning on continuing the series, just to see what happens to Darrow in the end.

It took me a long time to read the book partially because I was in a reading slump and partly because I found the book moved slowly and that I wasn’t engaging that much with Darrow until we entered the school. I nearly DNF’d the book, but decided since I was already that far I might as well finish the book. I’m glad that I did and now I need to know what happens to Darrow and the rest of the Reds.

Let me know what you are reading and if you have read the series. I hope to have a few more interesting post coming for you in the next couple of weeks.

From the mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler

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I know that it has once again been a while since I’ve written here, it’s okay though I’m just living my life. I’ve been trying to make vlogs for Youtube also, so please check out my channel here.

I’m back again with another book review with one of my favorite books of all time From the mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E L Konigsburg. The first time I read this book was sometime in high school , since the book didn’t initially hold my attention after it was given to me by my sixth grade teacher. (Mr. Schipper, I love the book now!) I feel in love with Claudia and her genius idea to runaway and live in the museum, but honestly I’m getting ahead of myself.

The basic synopsis for the book is the Claudia Kincaid has decided to runaway to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and take her youngest brother Jamie with her since he’s the one with the money and the most likable. Claudia has mainly decided to runaway to teach her family a lesson since she feels that she is deeply under appreciated. While hiding away at the museum a Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler donates a mysterious statue entitled the Angel. Claudia becomes fascinated with the statue and is determined to find out it’s origins.The story is narrated by Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler in a letter to her lawyer Saxonberg as to why she is changing her will.

I love that Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler narrates the story to Saxonberg and that we find the mysterious note between the narrator, her lawyer, and Claudia & Jamie. I loved that surprise twist. I would definitely recommend this book if you have never read it. Also I apparently just found out that there are two movies based on the book, which I will soon have to hunt down and watch.

Let me know what you have been reading lately and other things you have been up. I hope to be back soon with another post.

The life-changing magic of tidying up

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It’s been a minute since I have written here. Life has been good and I have been reading, just a bit more slowly than usually and inspiration to write other things hasn’t struck yet.

Today though I’m back here to talk about Marie Kondo’s book The Life-changing magic of tidying up. Let’s be real and say that I bought this book initially when it was a Paper & Glam book club read, back in 2016 or so didn’t make it through the book. Hello, Netflix special in January 2019 with Marie Kondo to inspire me to actually read the book and declutter. While I read the book slowly and went through at least 3 of the steps to date. ( I may have jumped around because you uncover things when you declutter items) I found that it helped with my decluttering process.

I found Marie Kondo’s step by step approach to decluttering with discarding over storage really helped in my process to actually get rid of things. I also found the process more helpful to follow along than the show, though the show was an inspiring place to start.

Would I recommend this book to people? Yes, I think that everyone would enjoy and can benefit from this book. Should you go out and buy the book? Well, I took notes on some of the things she says, but I will definitely be passing it on. I would recommend you borrow it, unless you know you are definitely going to keep it. Are there a few too many memes and jokes on the magic of tidying up? Possibly, but if it gets people to declutter and actually read the book then it’s all well and good.

Let me know if you have read the book, watched the series and have been inspired to declutter after either? I think as interesting as the initial process is, I think the follow up is even more interesting. I did search through the internet and found a few follow-up stories on people a few years after doing the KonMari method and how their lives have and haven’t changed because of it.

Hope to see you soon in another post!

Turn Around Bright Eyes

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So it has been a minute since I’ve written a post here and I do have a few more coming. I think it’s mostly because I am trying to read too many books at once, if that’s believable to say. Currently, I am in the midst of three books and that’s just at the moment. I’m also about to sound like a cliche, but how is it almost the end of February already? Crazy, the first two months of the year have nearly already flown by and I still feel as if I’m getting my feet under me with the start of the new year.

Well, getting back to the topic at hand before I left for a short trip in January, Matt and I went to Book Off a used bookstore to trade in some books and get a few new ones. I found Turn Around Bright Eyes: a karaoke journey of starting over, falling in love, and finding your voice by Rob Sheffield. I was intrigued by the title so I thought why not? Little did I know that the paperback book had been abused with pages torn out and sold like a brand new copy. Yes, I did weep a bit when I saw the bits of paper that showed where pages were meant to be in the beginning 🙁

The book overall was a fun journey of Rob Sheffeld’s life so far. In case, you are wondering who Rob Sheffeld is, he was once a contributing writer to Rolling Stone magazine has written several other books around the same musical theme. To be honest until he mentioned that he was once a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, I wasn’t even sure I would have picked him out on the street, though I probably would tell you that I could recognize his writing from somewhere. I used to subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine in college when, it was still that weird 12 x 12 or so size instead of the current 8.5 x 11 or so? What’s the normal magazine size now?!?

Rob titles his chapters after song lyrics and song titles that remind me of the time when he found karaoke and the songs that he has loved to sing. Rob starts the book at the end where he is karaoke bar hopping with his wife and they are singing their way through their favorite songs. Flash backward in time to when Rob first came to New York and was introduced to karaoke which helped him through a rough patch in his life. As Rob walks you through the songs of his life and how he remembers karaoke and its origins in his life you somehow can’t help but relate to having similar memories or adventures with friends and family.

If you are a music enthusiast, followed Rob Sheffield’s career for a long time or are just intrigued by karaoke you will love this book. If not you’ll at least find a chapter or two interesting but would recommend you put the book down and trying something else. I’m pretty sure that I will be giving another one of Rob Sheffield’s book a chance in the near future. Let me know what you have been reading lately or what’s coming up next for you. I have a few more book reviews in the works in the next week that I can’t wait to tell you about 🙂