83 Books Later...

My friend Elisa and I have a goal to read 50 books every year. I don't think either one of us has ever reached this goal until this year when I ended up reading 83. How crazy is that?! I never could have done it if I hadn't gotten let go from my job and had it taken so long to find a new one.
Here are my picks for the best books I read this year...
P.S. I Love You: Cecelia Ahern~> This is the first book that I read from this author, and I love her. Her books have so much feeling in them. They make you laugh and cry. The movie sucked, but the book is awesome.
Love Walked In: Marisa De Los Santos~> I'm not really sure what it was about this book that capitavated me into liking it. The main character finds that man of her dreams, but falls in love with more than just him. It's a touching novel about finding love in someone that you never expected to find it in.
Slightly Single: Wendy Markham~> I liked this book because I felt like the character was like any other average girl, trying to improve her life. I know that over this past year I said that I wanted to improve my life a million times and never did. She does. It was kind of motivating. (Sidenote: While there are other books in this series, this is the best, the others just come off as unrealistic).
Water For Elephants: Sara Gruen~> My mom read this for book club and said I should read it. So I finally did, and it was super good. I hate the circus and that's why it took me so long to read it, but it's more than just about life at the circus. It's about how it changed one man's life when he wasn't expecting it.
I read lots of good books this year, but these are probably the most noteworthy. Hope you got to read lots of good books this year.

Killer Blonde

I like this author's books. They are funny and real. And the main character reminds me of myself a little. This was just your typical mystery novel, but a funny one. A fast read. Sorry I can't think of a better review for it, but it was a pretty simple story. The best part are the emails from the parents. I hope mine never go crazy like that. Although it would be pretty humorous.

Rosie Dunne

This book is written by the author of P.S. I Love You, and since I loved that book, I decided to give her next book a try. It was just as fabulous. Her writing feels real, it has heart in it, it's packed full of feeling. I'm super jealous of her writing talent, even more so because we are the same age.

Rosie Dunne follows 45 years of the lives of Rosie and her best friend Alex. They have been best friends since they were 5, and the book documents all the ups and downs that we all go through. Whats different about this book than others is that it's written completely different from any other book I've read. It's written in the form of the character's letters, emails, cards, and IMs. I thought it would be hard to follow, but it wasn't. It actually made me want to start sending more emails and IMing more. Of course IMing is hard when no one is ever online. Texting just seems to impersonal.

Loved the book, seemed a big long, but it was a great read, so check it out. Didn't really like the ending. Kind of felt like the author was just leaving it up to the reader to decide what happens. Maybe she did it that way so that there could be a sequel. Don't know why there would be since the characters are 50. But life doesn't end at 50, so maybe there could be a whole nether story.

Cherry Cheesecake Murder

So, I don't know if I was wiped out from reading the last book, or if this book was just really bad, but I could not get into it. I've liked some of other stuff by this author, but actually, I think her work is getting worse as time goes by. The mystery in this one doesn't even start until about 200 pages into the book. I forgot I was even reading a mystery until some action finally happened. And the main character has 3 guys who are smitten with her. Two of which asked her to marry him. Does that really happen in real life? They only guy smitten with me is my slightly creepy married friend who just doesn't understand the word NO. Maybe I should learn to cook. Seems to work for Hannah.

Twilight

I finally allowed myself to become part of the Twilight cult. Or at least for a few hours while I read this over popular novel. You probably shouldn't read this entry if you are so in love with this novel, that a little or a lot of criticism will make you mad. Let's get started shall we?

Lets start with the cover. When I look at the cover, it makes me think of Snow White. Eat the poison apple Snow White. Or in this case, it could be more like, eat the poison apple Bella and you will fall in love with a vampire who will put you and your family in danger. Yum, poison apple.

So, for all 2 of you who haven't read this book, here's how it goes. Bella, is a dark and confusing teenager, as most teenagers are, who moves to Washington to live with her dad while her mom goes and has fun with a baseball (or maybe its basketball) player. Frankly, I don't blame her. I'd gladly go off with a cute athlete. Forks is the perfect place for someone who hates the rain and cold to move to. It just makes sense. So she moves there, goes to school, and like in most books and movies, but never in actual real life, she has like three guys in love with her straight from start. Which I don't understand, because she's a pale, brown haired, weirdo and I'm the same, and never get any guys to want to ask me to the school dance. And she turns them all down. That's not a normal thing for a teenager to do.

Anyway, on her first day she sees the Cullen clan and is fascinated by them. Apparently they are the most beautiful people in the whole town. This, I might understand, if I hadn't already seen the not so beautiful people who play them in the movie. Did I miss something? Cedric is not that cute. He wasn't that cute in Harry Potter, and because he wasn't very cute in Harry Potter, he decided to turn into a vampire. This is obviously going to confuse anyone who has not seen the 4th Harry Potter movie.

Bella falls in love with Edward, even though he is a vampire. But a vegetarian vampire (inside joke). Apparently his family doesn't eat people, but eat animals. I agree, a nice bear has got to be far more tasty than a homeless person. But, the world is way over populated so I think they should start eating people. At least the bad people like killers and Hitler.

One night Bella goes with Edward to watch his family play baseball when the visitors show up. The visitors being vampires as well but not friendly ones. Since Bella is human, one of them (James) decides that he's going to eat her. This is where the book went all wrong. The Cullens know that James wants to eat Bella, so instead of calling up Buffy to slay him, or Edward being a real man and protecting his girlfriend and killing James himself, they run away. Isn't there a saying about how running away from your problems isn't going to fix them? This book proves that. Lets run away and put Bella's family in danger. What a great idea. So they take her to Phoenix where her family lives and eventually Bella comes face to face with James, unarmed with a stake to stab and kill him with, and almost gets herself killed. Good thing the Cullens figured out that she had run away and were there in time to save her.In the end, everything is a good and jolly. Bella and Edward get to be together.

This is suppose to be a love story. Now, maybe I have a cold heart or something, but just how many high school relationships last? So I had a hard time convincing myself that these two were really in love. I'm sure as hell not in love with the guy(s) I thought I was in love with in high school. I do not understand how 3 other books were made off this storyline. Am I going to read them? Maybe someday, but not anytime soon. Am I going to see the movie? Yeah, probably. I'm kind of curious how they brought it all to life.

There was a lesson to this story. Stay away from vampires! They might come in handy when someone is trying to kill you, but they also kind of put you in danger. And break your heart. It happened to Buffy, it'll happen to Bella too.

St. Patrick's Day Murder

I should stop reading mysteries late at night. At least creepy ones like this one. As I was reading it, I realized that a lot of her books are a little creepy. Of course it really doesn't take much to creep me out. In this one, an Irish family comes to town and the mom is crazy and kidnaps Lucy's daughter, while her own daughter rambles on about how fairies and leprechauns are evil, and the dad possibly murdered his own brother. I'm not Irish so I don't know if the Irish stories that are in this book are true or not, but it might be something interesting to read if you are Irish. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't read it again.

This Pen For Hire

I'm starting to like this author. I first read her stuff in the last book I read, and enjoyed it so I checked out the first book in her mystery series, and it was good. It was short, funny, and a fast read. I've read a lot of mysteries this year, and most of them are slow and long with not much humor, so this was a refreshing read. I might have picked up her stuff earlier if she used more interesting titles. They don't really jump out at me, but oh well. I think most women can relate to Jaine, as she's always saying that she's going to stop eating so much, but then turns around and eats a bunch. That's me everyday. It's funny. Even if you don't really like mysteries, you should check this out.