The Fixer Upper

I kind of expected this book to be another cheesy chick novel, but it wasn't, and that made it so much better. Dempsey is a strong headed character who doesn't back down when her life falls apart. She loses her job in D.C. due to a government scandal and goes to Georgia to fix up an old house that her dad got from his dead uncle. The whole book is basically her fixing up this old house and finding her way in life. I really enjoyed it. It was kind of long, but good enough that you just keep wanting to read it. My only issue with it was that it ended kind of suddenly. It could've had a wrap up chapter, but other than that, I liked it.

Naturally Thin

I love the show The Real Housewives of New York City. It's one of my guilty pleasures. So when one of the girls on the show wrote a book, I wanted to read it. It's a health book, and normally I wouldn't have read it because health books are boring, but the chick who wrote it is funny on the show and slim and a cook, so I figured that she might have her act together. It was actually really easy to follow, and quick read, and helpful. Even after reading the first chapter it changed my state of thinking when it comes to food. It's such simple things that you wonder why you weren't doing this a long time ago. So here's the cliff notes verison of the book. I still think you should go snag a copy, but until you can, here's something to get you going....

The first part of the book is broken up into rules. Here are the rules and some notes that I wrote down for them.

Rule 1: Your Diet Is A Bank Account:

• "Eat what you want to eat. Just regognize what you are eating and if you know its an "expensive" investment, enjoy every bite. Or recognize and balance it later. Then you won't blow your budget and you can stay balanced. If you hate to exercise, you can eat a little less. If you love to exercise, you can eat a little more."


• Never have the same kind of food for two meals in a row. (Example: If I eat pasta for lunch, don't eat it again for dinner, like I usually do.)


• If you eat a big lunch, have a small dinner.

Rule 2: You Can Have It All, Just Not All At Once:

• You are the only one responsiable for what you put into your mouth.


• Example: Instead of pizza and ice cream, it's pizza OR ice cream. Not both.

Rule 3: Tast Everything, Eat Nothing:

• Eat little bits of really great food.


• Eat a little bit of what you want, but don't feel like you have to finish it.


• You want to eat not until you feel full, but just until you feel satisfied. (Don't keep eating if you feel full just because there's still food on the plate.)


• When you feel like you are going to over eat on something, eat something else. If you are still craving the first item, go ahead and eat it.

Rule 4: Pay Attention:

• Tune into your preparation, no matter how simple.


• Tast your food. If you eat food and you pay attention, you'll feel as though you didn't eat.


• Chew your food slowly and well.


• Quit muiltasking.


• Take a seat. Never eat while standing up. Always sit down.


• Slow down.


• Pause between bites.


• Make food special.

Rule #5: Downsize Now!:

• Eat what you want, just eat a small portion of it.

Rule #6: Cancel Your Membership In The Clean Plate Club:

• You don't have to clean your plate, its a bit cause of over eating. Box whatever is left over and eat it later.

Rule #7: Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself:

• Mostly this chapter talked about binge eating.


• Listen to your body.

Rule #8: Know Thyself:

• Know what your body likes and what it doesn't. Know when to much is to much.

Rule #9: Get Real:

• Real Food= Good. Processed Food= Bad.


• Eat organic when you can.


• Go local~> Foods are fresher.

Rule #10: Good For You:

• Let yourself be thin.


• Take care of yourself first, and the other things will fall into place.


• Sleep!


• Love yourself.

In the second part of the book, the author walks us through a week of what she eats and why she ate it and weather it was a good choice or not. There are also recipes throughout the book, so if you like to cook, they might come in handy.

Through out the book, she mentions a ton of times how this isn't a diet book, and that she's not telling you what to eat or how much to eat. But how to pick good choices.

Certain Girls

I got this book over a year ago, started reading it, decided that it was to long and read something else instead. I got tired of looking at it on my bookshelf so I started reading it again and made myself finish it. It wasn't a bad book, for the most part it was pretty interesting, but it really was to long. It's a story about a mother and a daughter. When the daughter was 3, the mother wrote a dirty novel which the daughter didn't know about until she was 13, then she read the book and basically flipped out because she felt like the mom had been lieing to her about stuff. The mom is like a overweight June Cleaver with a dark past. I got really annoyed hearing the daughter and the mom talk about how heavy the mom was. She's chubby, we got it, doesn't mean you need to remind us every other chapter. Like I said, it was a decent book, but I was very happy to have it read.

Stealing Home

I was really into this book up until about the last 100 pages when it started to get cheesy romantic. Of course you do find it in the romance section, so it only makes sense.

The story is about Maddie, a mother of 3 who just found out that her husband has been cheating on her and knocked up his girlfriend. So they get a divorce. Which is a sign for her two best friends to make her join in their idea in opening up a spa in their tiny little town. While doing this, the town's cute new baseball coach falls in love with her. And she starts to like him too. But for some reason, the town's people have an issue with this. What will Maddie do?

It's the first in the series of 4, and like I said, I was really into it, then it just got a bit to cheesy for me. So, I probably won't read anymore from the series. Even though I started the 4th book. Maybe it will be less cheesy.

Freshman Obsession

I don't know if this can really count as a post since it's a book for young adults. I used to love this series and then sold all the books I had in it when I felt that I was to grown up to own them. But there was a few in the series that I liked and wanted to read again, so I looked on Amazon and found this copy for super cheap and bought it.
The series is called Freshman Dorm which came out in the 90s. It's about three high school best friends who go to college. The reason I like these books is because they always have a life lesson in them. In this book, one of the characters feels like she has to turn to drugs to get her life back together after she gets dumped on her wedding day. Of course, in the end, the drugs just mess up her chance of getting into the Olympic trails for running because her leg goes out during a meet. In other words kids: Drugs are Bad.
Like I said, they were made in the 90's, so don't expect anything super spectacular. They are simple and a fast read, and I like them.

The Penguin Who Knew To Much

It was on the bargain rack and had penguins on the cover, so I figured, why not. It's part of a mystery series that I haven't read before, where, as far as I can tell, often have to do with animals.

In this one, the main character Meg finds penguins in the basement and a dead body. No, the penguins didn't kill anyone. The town zoo went out of business and before the keeper disappeared he got all the towns people to take the animals. Meg's dad took the penguins and as the book rolls along, they end up with half the zoo in their backyard. Of course, who wants a zoo in their backyard? So Meg is on the hunt to figure out what happened to the zoo keeper and how to get all the animals back to their rightful home.

It was a quick read and pretty funny when in just about every chapter another animal showed up. I was a little disappointed that it didn't have more to do with penguins. :o(

Get A Life That Doesn't Suck

I bought this book about a year ago when my life really did suck. Unemployed, couldn't find a roommate, broke, chubby, etc. But, I never read the book. Got through chapter one then got distracted by something else. A self help book can't help you if you don't read it.

It was a pretty good book. A little slow at first, but if you keep at it, it's quite helpful. I really liked how the author put in real life situation stories in there so that it was easier to better understand what she was trying to say. It really made me rethink my choices and the actions I make.

If you are unhappy with your life, check this book out. Take those sucky lemons and make some yummy lemonade.