I'M RUNNING AWAY FOR THE SUMMER

Just a little word to let you know that I am going to abandon my blog for the summer months.  I won't be adding anything new to the blog from now until at least September.  I am training for a half marathon and that will take most of my extremely limited free time. 

I'll be back when I can be revved up about my reading again. 

My e-mail is on my contact information if you want to chit chat.

I will still be hopping around to all of your blogs to read and visit.

Love,
Belle

PANDEMONIUM BY LAUREN OLIVER

  

It's About:  The continuing story of Lena in the Wilds where love is allowed to grow (2nd book in Delirium series).  I am committed to a spoil-free blog and, thus, I will say no more.

I Thought:  The writing was equally as good as Delirium.  I had to suspend belief a little here and there.  But, what's a good book if you aren't allowed to escape the real world once in a while?

Some Great Thoughts from Pandemonium:

"On one wall is tacked a small wooden cross with the figure of a man suspended in its middle....I have a sudden flashback to junior-year American history and Mrs. Dernler glaring as us from behind enormous glasses, jabbing the open textbook with her finger, saying, 'You see?  You see? These old religions, stained everywhere with love.  They reeked of deliria; they bled it.'  And of course at the time it seemed terrible, and true."

(The passage above scares me.)

"If he were less well trained, and less careful, he would say hate.  But he can't say it; it is too close to passion, and passion is too close to love, and love is amor deliria nervosa, the deadliest of all deadly things:  That is what hatred is.  It will feed you and at the same time turn you to rot."

(I love how this passage links love and hate as the same emotion.)

And a word on banning books:

"But forbidden books are so much more.  Some of them are webs; you can feel your way along their threads, but just barely, into strange and dark corners.  Some of them are balloons bobbing up through the sky:  totally self-contained, and unreachable, but beautiful to watch.  And some of them--the best ones--are doors."  

(Don't get me started on banned books!)

Rating:  4.75 stars

(I'm all about ratings again this year:  5 stars - enlightenment + connection; 4 stars - connection and bonding; 

3 stars - not bad writing, but no real connection; 2 stars - I probably did not finish and I won't bother telling you about it anyway; 1 star - disturbing - not the good kind, but the really ugly kind.)

IT'S A MONDAY FOR FOOLS! WHAT ARE YOU READING?

  

Brought to us by Book Journey

March Recap (What I read since last time I did this):

- 4 stars (I've read better Picoult... and worse)

- 4.5 stars (A great mommie dearest memoir)

- 3.75 stars (Mmm... connection to characters came too late in the story)  

- 4.25 stars (Usual fabulous Genova topic, but the ending was a little contrived)

- 4.5 stars (I'm a new Ann Leary fangirl)

- 5 stars (Leary is quite funny in her memoir of her first child's birth unexpectedly and abroad)

- 3 stars (Barely finished; no connection)

- 5 stars (If you're iffy on YA reading, read it anyway)

- 5 stars (This is a fabulous read!)

What Am I Reading Now?

 

(A very sarcastic, witty protagonist - burglar with a heart)

What's Next?

and  

(Delirium was that super good that I can't get my mind off of Lena and Hana)

Enjoy your reading week!        

ORDINARY GRACE: A NOVEL BY WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER

  

It's About:  A man''s recollection of one particular summer in his boyhood that changed everything.  The time is 1961.  The setting is a small Minnesota town.  Frankie's father is the minister of the Methodist Church.  Frankie's mother is a skeptic, verging on a non-believer.  Frankie is the middle child, not the favorite and not the most needy.  Just the middle child.  5 deaths happen that summer.  Frankie recollects each one and tells how each has the power to transform the living.  

I thought:  HOLY COWS, PEOPLE, READ THIS BOOK!  I know I've been reading some really great books lately and each time I finish I beg you to read it too.  This makes me a voracious reader verging on non-believable.  I know.  But please, if you're only going to pick one of my books to read, read this one.  It has the power to transform.  

Transformation:

"What's left to us when that which we love most has been taken?  I will tell you what's left,three profound blessings.  In his first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul tells us exactly what they are:  faith, hope, and love.  These gifts, which are the foundation of eternity, God has given to us and he's given us complete control over them.  Even in the darkest night it's still within our power to hold to faith.  We can still embrace hope.  And although we may ourselves feel unloved we can still stand steadfast in our love for others and for God.  All this is in our control.  God gave us these gifts and he does not take them back.  It is we who choose to discard them.

In your dark night, I urge you to hold to your faith, to embrace hope, and to bear your love before you like a burning candle, for I promise that it will light your way.

And whether you believe in miracles or not, I can guarantee that you will experience one.  It may not be the miracle you've prayed for.  God probably won't undo what's been done.  The miracle is this:  that you will rise in the morning and be able to see again the startling beauty of the day."

Final Thoughts:  And that, my friends, is the best Good Friday message I've heard in a long time.  If you are not a Christian, do not let this passage take you away from this very great book.  Those words are universal.  They are only framed in a Christian context.  

Rating:  5 stars

(I'm all about ratings again this year:  5 stars - enlightenment + connection; 4 stars - connection and bonding; 

3 stars - not bad writing, but no real connection; 2 stars - I probably did not finish and I won't bother telling you about it anyway; 1 star - disturbing - not the good kind, but the really ugly kind.)

     

DELIRIUM BY LAUREN OLIVER

  

It's About:  (In case anyone does not yet know) Dystopia.  A world that rejects love.  50 years in the future, America has closed its borders and has started giving people the cure at the age of 18.  The cure takes a person's ability to love away.  By taking love away, the government believes it removes pain and hatred too.  No emotion.  No passion.  None at all.  Unfortunately, the cure does not work before the age of 18.  Fortunately, we have teenagers that are not afraid to express their love and still believe in a future in love.

I Thought:  I resisted this book for a good long time.  Silly me!  This book is great reading - young or old - Denier of YA reading or passionate youthful reader.  It's for everyone.  I am only going to say to you all:  READ IT!

The Truths:

This is what people are always talking about when they talk about God:  this feeling, of being held and understood and protected.  Feeling this way seems about as close to saying a prayer as you could get.

I know that life isn't life if you just float through it.  I know that the whole point - the only point - is to find the things that matter, and hold on to them, and fight for them, and refuse to let them go.  

Love, the deadliest of all deadly things:  It kills you both when you have it and when you don't.  But that isn't it, exactly.  The condemner and the condemned.  The executioner; the blade; the last-minute reprieve; the gasping breath and the rolling sky above you and the thank you, thank you, thank you, God.  Love:  it will kill you and save you, both. 

Rating:  5 stars

(I'm all about ratings again this year:  5 stars - enlightenment + connection; 4 stars - connection and bonding; 

3 stars - not bad writing, but no real connection; 2 stars - I probably did not finish and I won't bother telling you about it anyway; 1 star - disturbing - not the good kind, but the really ugly kind.)

BELLE'S Top Ten Books She Recommends The Most

  

Brought to us by The Broke and The Bookish

I am rather the quiet type and no one really asks me what to read (and I think that's because I live in and amongst non-readers), but if I were to have an imaginary conversation with someone about what to read these books would be in my conversation:

1.   

I am fangirl all the way of Robert Goolrick.  

2.  

I just discovered Ann Leary (Denis' wife).  She is funny.  This book is about her premature delivery of her first child while visiting England.  

3.

Hey, I actually did sort of recommend this one out loud.  I was at Barnes and Noble and this older guy had this one in his hands.  As I walked by I told him he couldn't go wrong with this one.  He just looked at me sort of weird like I was interfering with his communion with the book or something.

4.   

This is one of my newest favorites.  I've recommended it to someone at work that was headed on vacation.  No word if she ever read it.  I do think The Relentless Reader liked it though.

5.   

Anne Lamott.  I found her Operating Instructions some years ago and read her follow up from last year about her raising her son as a single, alcoholic/drug-addicted young mother who finds God.  It's all in her writing.  I would read anything she wrote.  She's funny too.

6.   

If you are needing to shed some tears for any reason, this book will loosen them for you.  P.S. I Love you by Cecelia Ahern

7.   

I never give up on trying to get people into Dame Christie.  She writes the best mysteries to take one's mind off of real life.  The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is one of the best IMO.

8.   

The Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton.  This was one of those stumble-upons at the library several years ago.  I recommended it a ton back then and to my mom specifically.  I know she loved it.  Carleton never wrote anything else.  Such a shame.  

9.         

This is Greek mythology.  I was forced to read this, kicking and screaming all the way, for a lit class in college.  Yet, I've never forgotten Medea and her savage designs on motherhood.  I think all mothers should read this.  

10.   

There is not one person over the age of 14 that should not be told about To Kill a Mockingbird.  I recommend it every chance I get.  The words are important and should never be forgotten.

  

Top Ten Books I HAD To Buy...But Are Still Sitting On My Shelf Unread

   

Brought to us by The Broke and The Bookish

This will probably be the easiest Top Ten I've done in a long time.  BookBelle is the home of bought but unread books!

1.   

I didn't realize that this was going to be a spooky ghost story and I just am not up to that in my present state of mind.

2.   

Despite rave reviews on many blogs, I just haven't felt the urge yet.

3.   

I know it's going to be good.  Why oh why have I not read it yet?!?

4.   

The further we get from publication date, the less likely I will be to read this one.  Don't try to understand.   I don't understand it myself.

5.      

See, all these great books just keep getting released and I keep buying newer releases and then the January releases don't look half so pleasing to me.  

6.   

A Kindle Daily Deal.  I generally despise Jane Eyre.  What makes me think I will like a re-telling?  The cover is cute though.

7.    

Atkinson is another blogger's favorite author.  When I read her blog, I just want to read what she is reading.  

8.   

This is the final book in the series.  It was one of those deals where I excitedly bought all three at the same time.  Why do I not learn my lesson that Book 1 may be much, much better than Book 3 will be?  I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be a disappointment.

9.   

I'm freaking about this one because I thought it was a stand alone book and now I've read something that it is the end of a trilogy.  I made that terrible mistake of reading out of order with Bring Up the Bodies and I think this will be the same sort of experience.

10.  and   

It's not that I won't read these two.  I have seen plenty of hype for both and I want in on the fun.  It's just that I'm afraid they were impulse buys early this morning.  

Awww... I feel like I've cleansed my reading soul.    

THE GOOD HOUSE BY ANN LEARY

  

Stolen pleasures are always more thrilling than those come by honestly.  It's what I imagine makes adulterous love affairs so exciting, having a wickedness concealed beneath one's everyday mantle of goodness. 

It's About:  Hildy Good, a successful New England realtor has been intervened upon and has become a quite reluctant recovering alcoholic.  Hildy is a direct descendent of Sara Good, an accused witch tried and hanged in Salem.  She has been taught how to read people (not to be confused with reading minds as her neighbors would think) by her crazy aunt.  In general, she makes her neighbors uncomfortable as both a supposed mind-reader and now as a recovering alcoholic.  Hildy is an observant neighbor and has a sharp and witty voice.  As she maneuvers her way through her day-to-day life as a top realtor in an exclusive New England town, as a mother to two grown daughters that closely monitor what is in her glass, as a grandmother that does not understand the current parenting trends, as a girlfriend that doesn't always fit in, and a single woman that is looking for some man attention she comes to some deep realizations about the images people project for their neighbors and how that does not always align with what is really going on internally.  This is a story of self-realization that will take the reader unaware.  

I Thought:  The plot is a slow starter, however, not in the way that I felt I wanted to put the book down.  More, I couldn't figure out why Hildy felt it so important to tell her story.  It seemed to be just a recording of her day planner.  Yet, as I became more invested in the town and its people, I realized that Hildy was really conveying the author's message that we really don't know what is internally brewing in our neighbors based on what they choose to provide as their social image.  Perhaps, this can be applied to the dilemma of Facebook vs. real life.  Hildy contends that she can take one look at a person's house and know what internal state or condition that person is in (I couldn't agree more!).  So skip that Facebook "all is well" nirvana and, stop over for a visit if you want to see how someone is really doing.  The story rolls along in this gentle way until tragedy strikes and the whole pretty facade begins to crack.  It is then that Hildy realizes that she needs to get right with herself.  

For the Journey I Take:

Nobody wants to believe the obvious and visible reality that we are all quite the same.  Most would rather believe in the invisible and the improbability - that fate is determined by the alignment of stars, that there is a spiritual entity rooting for them, for unique and wonderful them, that humans can read minds, that their destiny can be foretold and possibly altered.  The simple truth is this:  Most humans are very much alike.  The simple and obvious truth is that there are very few variables to what a person might do, think, fear, or desire in any given situation.   

If you go here, you can hear Ann talk about her book.  I am never able to discuss all angles of a book thoroughly here.  It would take me several weeks to do that!

A Link:  The Leonard Lopate Show

Recommendation:  Definitely read it!  I feel this complete soul connection with Ann Leary - nearing fangirl.  

Rating:  4.50 stars

(I'm all about ratings again this year:  5 stars - enlightenment + connection; 4 stars - connection and bonding; 

3 stars - not bad writing, but no real connection; 2 stars - I probably did not finish and I won't bother telling you about it anyway; 1 star - disturbing - not the good kind, but the really ugly kind.)