Jan 17, 2012

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Recommendations for Chick Lit



Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish

This week's Top Ten is :

Top Ten Books I'd Recommend to Someone Who Doesn't Read Chick Lit.


The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Men I've Dated

1.  The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Men I've Dated by Shane Bolks


A Girl Like You

2.  A Girl Like You by Gemma Burgess


Attachments


3.  Attachments by Rainbow Rowell


You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

4.  You Don't Have To Say You Love Me by Sarra Manning


Sex, Murder And A Double Latte (A Sophie Katz Murder Mystery #1)

5.  Sophie Katz Series by Kyra Davis
There are 5 books in this series


Rumor Has It: Some people just can't keep a secret...

6.  Rumor Has It by Jill Mansell


Notes From The Backseat

7.  Notes From the Backseat by Jody Gehrman



Something Borrowed (Darcy & Rachel, #1)

8.  Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin


Queen of Babble (Queen of Babble, #1)

9.  Queen of Babble Trilogy by Meg Cabot



Accidental It Girl

10.  Accidental It Girl by Libby Street


I also have to add anything by Melissa Nathan.




Jan 13, 2012

Sundowners by Lesley Lokko


Sundowners

Sundowners
Author:  Lesley Lokko
Publisher:  Orion Mass Market Paperback
Publication Date:  October 7th 2004


Take Four friends...Rianne:  beautiful, wealthy and thoroughly spoilt, she has the world at her feet but is about to risk everything.  Gabrielle:  intelligent, loyal and always worrying about everyone else, now it's time for her to start looking after No. 1.  Nathalie:  petite, pretty and with a shrewd eye for business, she uses her work to help her forget the one man she can't have.  Charmaine:  flirty and outrageous, she knows all about the good life.  She just needs someone to pay for it...Then a chance encounter changes everything- and for Rianne and her friends, nothing is going to be the same...

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I've had Sundowners in my TBR for years now and with my commitment to read my oldest books I decided on this chunkster.  At 656 pages Sundowners is an epic read that covers 20 years of the lives of 4 girls from their time in a all girl's boarding school to the start of their careers and adult lives.  

Sundowners reminded me a lot of Judith Michael's books or even Judith Krantz. Author Lesley Lokko grabs you from the start, now for me the start grabbed me but in all the wrong ways.  I detested Rianne from the start up until about 100 pages in.  Then I started to see changes in her that made the next 500 and something pages a crazy ride.  Her story still was my least favorite though.  I enjoyed reading about Gabrielle's life the most.  But they were all interesting.   I was rooting for all of them.

There is a little bit of everything in Sundowners..politics, love, betrayal and exotic locations.  The politics was really interesting, it was having to do with South Africa, Nelson Mandela and so much more.  It's very hard to explain it, but it's definitely exciting.  

Sundowners is a throwback to women's fiction of the past.  It's a glorious ride.

Jan 11, 2012

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell


Attachments

Attachments
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publisher:  Dutton Adult
Publication Date:  April 14th 2011 

From Goodreads:

Beth and Jennifer know their company monitors their office e-mail.  But the women still spend all day sending each other messages, gossiping about their coworkers at the newspaper and baring their personal lives like an open book.  Jennifer tells Beth everything she can't seem to tell her husband about her anxieties over starting a family.  And Beth tells Jennifer everything, period.  

When Lincoln applied to be an Internet security officer, he hardly imagined he'd be sifting through other people's inboxes like some sort of electronic Peeping Tom.  Lincoln is supposed to turn people in for misusing company e-mail, but he can't quite bring himself to crack down on Beth and Jennifer.  He can't help but be entertained and captivated by their stories.

But by the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late for him to ever introduce himself.  What would he say to her?  "Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you."  After a series of close encounters and missed connections, Lincoln decides it's time to muster the courage to follow his heart...even if he can't see exactly where it's leading him.

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Wow! What an awesome book.  Attachments has a little bit of everything that makes a great women's read.  The characters, the relationships, the wittiness and of course the story itself...I could kiss it.

Attachments is told mostly/really from the perspective of Lincoln, our ever laid back yet tense male protagonist.  We know of Beth and Jennifer only through their emails.  Back to my book character crush Lincoln, he is perfect...for me.  He's a little depressing and pessimistic.  He's a tad bit of a loner, not really ambitious but aware of his lack of it.  Wants some purpose but needs someone to point him in the right direction.  The ending of his relationship to what he thinks is  his one true love darkens him.  Slowly though he rises up from the ashes and starts living his life.  The fact that he falls for Beth through emails before he even knows what she looks like makes me like him even more.  Beth and Jennifer have a great rapport with each other.  They tell each other everything and you do get a sense of their personalities through their emails.  Beth is witty, fun and sarcastic.  Jennifer is equally just as witty.  

To me attachments is more a story about Lincoln then Beth and Jennifer.  We are along for the ride as Lincoln tries to discover what he wants in life.  We ride out this funk he's in at the same time admiring his uncomfortable yet liberating choices he's making.  And through the emails we find out about Beth and her emotionally closed off boyfriend and the back and forth decision of whether to be a mom with Jennifer.  

Everything was just done right in Attachments.  I loved it!!



Jan 9, 2012

Things I Know About Love by Kate Le Vann


Things I Know About Love

Things I Know About Love
Author:  Kate Le Van
Publisher:  EgmontUSA
Publication Date:  December 10th 2010

From Goodreads:  

Livia Stowe has never been lucky in love.  While her friends were going to parties and dances and on dates, Livia was being shuffled in and out of hospitals, making her dating life difficult.

But this summer is going to be different.  Cancer-free for over a year, Livia's boarding a plane to visit her brother as he studies abroad at Princeton University.  She's determined to make the most of her trip, recording every moment of it in her private blog.  Maybe she'll even have a fling with a cute college boy!

America is bright, exciting, and filled with romantic possibilities.  And then Livia meets Adam, and her plans for summer fun become so much more.  Entranced by the magical New York City that he shows her, Livia is smitten, but is she really ready to risk her heart again?

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Things I Know About Love is a really short read with 160 pages but in those pages you really get to know Livia and love her.  Her romance with Adam is sweet and full of youthful romance.  I was reminded of the feeling you get when you meet someone for the first time you really like.  How you don't want to interpret signs.  Just the fact that everything HAS to be a sign.  It was all done very cute, but then you know there is this awful lingering thing in the distance.  Livia's illness is always there in back of her mind, but she doesn't want it to affect her new found happiness with Adam.  We also get to see things from Adam's point of view.  There isn't a lot of it but enough to know what he's feeling about Livia.  

I was touched by Livia's story of first love.  

Jan 8, 2012

Weekly Recap and Upcoming Week

This week I read 5 books and wrote a review for all but one.  One of my resolutions was to write my reviews as soon as I finish a book.  So far so good.

The Descendants: A NovelThings I Know About LoveAn Invisible Thread  The Fates Will Find Their Way: A Novel  Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake (Love By Number, #1)   

  I have one review left to write for this week for Things I Know About Love by Kate Le Vann.

I also wanted to read out of my comfort level this year.  4 out of the 5 books I read I probably would not have picked up before.  

My favorite read this week is Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake.  

I'm currently reading Attachments by Rainbow Rowell. I'm not too far in, but so far it's good.  This upcoming week I hope to read at least 3 books.  

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School starts back up for my kids Tuesday. Thank God!!  I am so ready to get back to a regular routine.  Yesterday I was feeling antsy, I think my ADD was kicking up in full gear.  I read for about 30 minutes only yesterday, watched absolutely no TV, instead I invited some friends over and had a ping pong tournament in my backyard.  I was on ping pong fire.  I kicked some major butt!

Hope everyone has a great upcoming week.

Jan 7, 2012

Just a little story about FIREWORKS.

My New Year started with a bang, hundreds of them to exact.  There were so many fireworks going off all night.  One decided to go rogue and set it's eyes on me or my chest to be exact.
<---This is what my chest looked like 5 minutes past midnight.  It hurt like hell and I was cussing up a storm.  And before anyone says I shouldn't have been close to it, I wasn't close to it.  I'm an adult and I know better.  The pain has subsided but now I'm worried about scarring.  Are my cleavage showing days over?  By 12: 30 I was at home laying down with burn medicine all over my chest.  But not before someone put butter on it at the party I was at, then was told by numerous people butter is just an old wise tale and not to be put on a burn.  So then I got lathered with mustard and smelled like a hot dog. :P  What a way to start the New Year.

Jan 6, 2012

An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff, Alex Tresniowski


An Invisible Thread

An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski
Publisher:  Howard Books
Publication Date:  November 1st 2011
Non-Fiction


An Invisible Thread is about an incredible friendship between a 11 yr. old boy living off the streets of New York and a thirty something business women.  Laura Schroff walked right pass Maurice when he asked for some spare change, for some reason after passing him up Laura stopped and turned back.  She offered to take him to McDonald's.  From there grew a friendship that would change both their lives for the better.

An Invisible Thread is such an inspirational read.  How many times have we ignored the homeless asking for change?  Have we become so jaded that it doesn't even pull on our heartstrings to see someone going through hard times?  I love that Ms. Schroff stopped and considered that she was ignoring a child obviously hungry.  She gained so much from her friendship with Maurice.  Maurice's story is heartbreaking to read, especially knowing that it is the story of many children out there today looking for someone to care.  

In An Invisible Thread we follow both Maurice's and Laura's individual lives and their deep friendship.  We also get insight to their pasts.  I truly loved this book.