Sunday, July 31, 2011

Geeks



I wrote a massive long review about how I hated this book, but it didn't save. Pretty much it's about two whiny 19 year old boys from Idaho (like myself) who hate it here and a the author gives the idea to move out of state because there are jobs for geeks all over. So he helps them move to Chicago and helps them get jobs and even helps one of them get into college. Fist off, Idaho isn't as bad as they make it out to be. Second, if they hated it here so much, then they should've just made sure they had great grades in high school and went to a college out of state like a lot of my classmates did. And is the author going to go out and play daddy to all the other teens who feel misunderstood in high school. Maybe if they hadn't spent all their time online or acting out, they might have gotten the courage to try new things and make some new friends and feel like the fit in a bit better. But nope, they were geeks (as they called themselves) and did nothing but play online and become hermits. I have no sympathy for these guys. If you don't like how your life is, do something about it, because not everyone is going to be lucky enough to get a news reporter to help them with the hard stuff in life.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Slightly Single



I love this book! This is my second time reading it and it's still uplifting. I think maybe Tracey annoyed me a little more with her denial and whining over her douche bag boyfriend Will being out of town for the summer and never calling her. Since she's spending the summer alone, she decides its a great time to improve her life. She loses weight (by exercise and smaller portions, what a shock, it does work) and saving money (to buy an awesome big bed) and reading the classics. She also meets a cutie guy named Buckley.



I think the reason why I find this so uplifting is because she is just like every other girl out there and she actually does something about it. Me for example want to lose weight and save money, but of course instead of doing so, I'm reading books and napping all day. lol. And yes, I know that she is just a fictional character and the odds of being able to lose 40 lbs in one summer isn't very realistic, but still, don't a lot of people look towards fictional characters to help them figure out life. How many movies have been made that touched people and helped them make changes. So maybe it isn't so crazy to idolize a book character.



Anyway, still love the book.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

English Tea Murder



In the latest book, Lucy and her three best friends go to England (so jealous!) with a group of college students when on the flight there, their tour guide and college professor dies for what people assume to be an asthma attack. The most disturbing part about this is that they just leave him sitting dead in his seat for the rest of the trip, and no one acts like its an issues. Ick. They get to England and get a new tour guide, who Lucy used to have a teacher and throughout the whole book her friends (who started to annoy me, mostly Sue) joked with her about how he has a crush on her. It got annoying. Almost as annoying as it was that all Lucy talked about was how she was worried about her oldest daughter having problems at college. Who cares?! Not me. During the trip, one of the students almost dies by jumping off the pier into the water and Lucy's friend Pam gets pushed into traffic. Of course Lucy (who needs to stop reading and watching mysteries) gets all paranoid and thinks that there is a killer in their group. So she tries to find out who it is. And chances are, it is who you expect it to be.



I wasn't really that impressed with this book. Seems like all they did in England was shop, walk, look for tea and eat fatty foods. Even so, I still want to go someday.

Friday, July 22, 2011

A Hard Day's Fright



In this book, Pepper (who is still snobby) sees a ghost of a seventeen year old girl who died back in 1966 who needs Pepper's help in finding her body. Only the ghost is stuck on a bus. So every time Pepper needs to talk to her (Lucy) she has to get on the bus. Lucy was friends with Pepper's boss Ella so Pepper really wants to find out what happened. All in all, it was decent. Has a nice cliffhanger at the end to make the readers want to read the next book.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Kick Up Your Heels...



This was a interesting, quick, funny read about pretty much enjoying life and taking care of yourself. She talks about how people need to stop listening to the media and dieting and learn to love yourself for who you are. Has what she calls 'Juicy Tidbits' in each chapter which are info about ways to enjoy life and Ways to Wither which give you a list of ways to not be happy. Obviously that's not something you want to follow.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Sisterhood Everlasting



I didn't hate this book, but it really didn't seem very realistic. My friends and I are 29 like the girls in this book and their lives are nothing like other 29 year old that I know. First off, like 90% of my friends are married with kids. None of these girls are married. I was part of a group of four friends back in high school and 2 out of the four of us are married with kids, so the stats show that some of these girls should've been married. Anyway, we do find out later that Tibby does have a child and Bridget is expecting. And I know how these girls have the money to just jet set off to Greece, Australia, PA, etc. All of my friends are tight for money, so this is just not very realistic. Bridget lives in San Fran with her boyfriend, Carmen has turned into a snobby skinny NYC actress, Lena lives alone still pining over Kostos, and Tibby went to Australia and no one has heard from her in years until one day the girls get letters and plane tickets to meet her at Lena's grandparents house in Greece. They are very excited, go there and find out that Tibby has died. At first they think she killed herself but as the book goes on we find out that she was sick and happened to pass away while in Greece. This obviously depresses the girls and they suddenly realize that they aren't as close as they once where and they feel like strangers. They go their separate ways, Lena goes back to NYC and starts talking to Kostos, and thank goodness they get together in the end. Bridget runs away from her problems and ends up in Australia with Tibby's boyfriend Brian and finds out what happened to Tibby. Carmen, thankfully, finds her old self again. She was really starting to annoy me. The book was kind of weak, but it does get better towards the end. I just hope she doesn't write another one. The first book in the series is still the best

Skirting The Grave



I don't know why I keep reading this series. I don't hate the characters or anything, though Maddie does get annoying sometimes because the author tries to make her seem perfect. The chick is crazy. I have nothing against people being into fashion, but come on, what are the odds that every time she finds a new vintage dress it just happens to fit her. People these days are not the same size as people back in the 50s. And who says 'scrap' instead of 'crap'. Crap is not a bad word lady.



I kind of zoned out during this one, there were just to many characters. Kind of had a hard time keeping them in track and the storyline really wasn't that exciting. So unless you are a huge fan of the series, you can probably just go ahead and skip this one.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Trading Up



This book was a waste of time. It was a reminder why I try to avoid chick lit novels. I think this is maybe the 3rd time I've tried reading it, and forced myself to get through it. First, it was WAY to long, as were the chapters. And if the author was trying to make the main character Janey likable, she was WAY off. It follows the story of 33 year old Janey Wilcox who is a stuck up Victoria's Secret model who thinks everything is about her and marries a rich man she doesn't even love, because apparently that's what people do in NYC. This book actually made me never want to go to NYC or get married. Everyone was lying and using everyone else to try and either get ahead or cover their butts. Thumbs down.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Groundswell



I hate to give first time authors a negative score, because at least they are attempting their dream and writing a book, which is more than I've done. But this one was kind of weak. I was on the USA Today website and found a article about how this book might be a reflection on the author's unsuccessful marriage (for those of you who don't know, she was married to Billy Joel, the singer), and she denied it, but come on, there has to be some truth to it.



Anyway, it's about a small town girl who falls in love with a movie star who falls in love with her, they get married, then seven years later, she finds out that he cheated on her with her BFF (that's original), so she leaves him and goes to Mexico where she gets smitten with a surfer. Of course the book as a happy ending, but more than half of it was telling the story about how she and her hubby met. I guess I was expecting more on her journey to rediscover herself and move on with life after she finds out about her hubby. But really, there's only about 50 pages of that. There really wasn't very much emotion in this book. Like you know that she's supposed to be happy or sad or whatever, but the author doesn't really go into depth with the feelings, so that kind of helped make it a little flat.