I sat down with a piece of left over Christmas chocolate (alright two pieces) and a Diet Coke (so it was really four pieces) to read a chapter of the new Janet Evanovich book (but one was a coconut one so you can’t count that) and before I knew it I was immersed in rude monkeys, cupcake obsessions and supernatural events.
Next thing I knew the book was done and Clara was awake.
So much for a productive nap time.
Would I recommend it? Only if you like laughing.
Have I ever mentioned that I forgot books almost as soon as I read them? These little reviews I write, I do them immediately. Except for this one. It’s been a few days, and 3/4 of the way through my next book the details of this one are getting fuzzy already, so I’ll make it short.
Philippa Gregory is one of my new favorite authors.
Her books are excellent.
You should read them.
This one had lots of battles, traitors and people with the same name.
Would I recommend it? Yes. Look here and here for other books I’ve read by her.
I listened to this on CD starting when we headed out to Kansas.
Then I discovered that it is very difficult to find time to listen to a book that involves a lot of shooting, fighting and killing when you have little girls in the house.
So I just finished this week.
Good one liners, and humor mixed in with a lot of descriptions of crazy weapons, attack strategies and a modern day treasure hunt – I’d call it a boy book fortunately I enjoy a good boy book every now and then!
Would I recommend it? Not good enough writing that I’d straight up recommend it. Good enough plot that I do recommend it if you are looking for a good dry humor blow stuff up book.
“You win $22 Million. Now What?”
Did you know there were choose your own adventure books written for adults?
I had no idea until this was chosen for our book club this month.
The writing is not great.
The story lines are random and totally wacky.
The book was a blast to read and completely addictive.
I’d say this would be a perfect book for traveling, in just a few minutes you’ll probably be dead and be ready to try again.
I had no idea the lottery was so hazardous to your health but between, money grubbing men, pirates, drug runners, malaria, Clydesdales and the undead it’s a treacherous journey!
Would I recommend it? Yes I really would. It’s quick, it’s fun, it’s totally crazy (rancher, stripper, voodoo priestess, violin maker, the book is under 500 pages but the options in careers seem endless!) but careful it’s hard to put down. When your remote lodge on Lake Superior doesn’t turn out you just might need to know what would have happened if you had you taken the trip to Sex Island instead!
FYI choosing good moral choices will in no way increase your chances of survival or happiness.
Oh, Fancy Nancy…
I can’t decide if I despise you and your obnoxious, high falutin, fancy ways…
or if I think your slightly charming and humorous.
I do know that Ivy loves you.
And I loved this page.
Would I recommend it? Only every other Friday.
I really am still reading books myself though it’s been almost three weeks since I finished a book! That must be some sort of slow reading record for me, you’d think I was traveling all over the place the last few weeks or something!
Making an apple pie is easy, unless the market is closed…
Then it’s off around the world to gather wheat from Italy, a chicken from France (“French chickens lay elegant eggs-and you want only the finest ingredients for your pie.”), kurundu bark from Sri Lanka, a cow from England, (“You’ll know she’s an English cow from her good manners and charming accent.”) 
seawater, on your way to Jamaica for sugar cane and then to Vermont for the apples.
After that all you have to do is:
This is a book that I suspect would appeal to slightly older kids but since my testers max out at the age of three years and ten months I can’t say for certain. What I can say is that Ivy does currently enjoy it, though I suspect it may be the parachuting cow and chicken more than the world travel that gets her attention.
Would I recommend it? Yes. In a world where a surprising number of kids (and adults I had no idea about the cinnamon) are a bit clueless as to how the food makes it onto the shelf at the market I think it’s a great book.
My only issue with it is that I’m certain my chickens lay just as good of eggs as any French chicken!
The cover of the book says “One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World.”
Good thing too, it was the grumpiness that made the book. This grumpy author travels to ten countries and shares what he learns in chapters with titles like:
“Switzerland – Happiness Is Boredom”
“Iceland – Happiness Is Failure”
and
“Moldova – Happiness Is Somewhere Else”
Had this book been written by some positive thinking, sickly sweet personality, the world is a wonderful place and I’m a wonderful person, ( yes Eat, Pray Love, I’m thinking of you) it would have been a total failure. Fortunately Eric Weiner is an unhappy grump, (his words not mine) and so what could have been a nauseating topic turns out to be amusing and informative.
Would I recommend it? Yes. It’s also full of interesting facts. Did you know the smiley face was invented in 1963 to cheer up workers at an insurance company? 🙂
This week I checked this book out from the library just so I could write about it…
.. and read it to Ivy 20 million times, becuase she likes it…
…which is fine by me, I sort of love it.
The key to this book is the little comment in parenthesis it is “A Fish Chant.” When you go find this book and bring it home, you can’t just read it. Nope, it won’t work, you won’t love it, your kid will think it’s lame. You have to find the rhythm of the words and chant it. If that sounds ridiculous please keep in mind that I can’t clap along with a beat, but I can read this book with a bit of a rhythm to it, so therefore, you can too. 
Then when you do chant it, you’ll also love it, accidentally memorize it, and then have fish names like “Sockeye Salmon, Arctic Char, Mooneye, Walleye, Gar, Gar, Gar!” rolling around in your head too. Which will turn out to be a good thing, becuase you’ll be able to “read” the book while cooking, cleaning, changing diapers or driving. Then your kid will also start to memorize it and help with the “Gar, Gar, Gar!’s. And then if you’d like to know what exactly these crazy fish are that you have been chanting about all day, you can look it up in the back of the book where they have a little blurb on each fish.
Or at least that’s how it happened here!
Would I recommend it? It’s a must!
The nex
t two books in the Sisters Grimm series were much like the first. They were fun, playful quirky sort of books, and now that I’ve read three of them I feel my “research” is finished.
Would I recommend them? I will be recommending them to my daughters, if I can remember they exist when the girls are finally old enough to read them!
More historical fiction…
…I love it!
I find it to be a painless form of accidental learning where I often retain information better than completely non-fiction sources.
Like all the best historical fiction it includes a part in the back that says what is fact and what isn’t, important when used as an accidental learning source!
Then of course there was the actual substance of the book, involving two different times (current and past, love that) two different countries (culture comparisons, always good) and a willful woman in a time when that was not encouraged (gotta love that).
Oh, and pirates, they always make life more…”interesting.”
Would I recommend it? Yes, it dealt with a small part of history I’d never heard of before.
Behind the Willows 