Seven Sexy Sins
by Serenity Woods
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
My Review:
I've read a few short stories by Serenity Woods. They didn't grip
me all that much but I saw some good reviews/recommendations for this
book so I decided to give it a try. It took a while for me to
connect with the characters. It just seemed like they were trying to
be hilarious even at serious moments and it didn't work for me. I'm
glad I kept going though. This book got much better and by the end I
was really rooting for Faith and Rusty. They ended up being nice
solid characters that I enjoyed spending time with.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Introvert Power
Introvert Power
by Laurie Helgoe, PhD
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
My Review:
I forget why I found this book but I'm really glad I read it. I went through it a lot slower than I normally read, but I had so much to highlight and think about. Introverts naturally like to reflect and I think that's what the author encourages most in this book.
No matter what type of introvert you are or how introverted you are, you will benefit from stepping back and following your gut. If you don't want to go to the party, say "I don't feel like going", if there are things you've been wanting in your life, stop and think about them and let them emerge. If you give yourself the space you've been needing, you will ordinarily feel better about yourself.
I will have to refer back to this book often because the author has so many good quotes. I should probably make sticky notes and hang them around my house so I remember to keep these things in mind. I don't think I identified with everything in the book. I think I'm a bit more moderate. But if something didn't fit me I was often able to say "oh, that's probably why <this person> does that".
I would recommend this book for anyone who's trying to find a place to fit in or who doesn't know why they haven't found their spot yet. This book says "that's ok, it'll come eventually" but more importantly "doing something you don't like for the sake of fitting in, doesn't help you be true to yourself". Probably something most of us could use to be reminded of.
by Laurie Helgoe, PhD
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
My Review:
I forget why I found this book but I'm really glad I read it. I went through it a lot slower than I normally read, but I had so much to highlight and think about. Introverts naturally like to reflect and I think that's what the author encourages most in this book.
No matter what type of introvert you are or how introverted you are, you will benefit from stepping back and following your gut. If you don't want to go to the party, say "I don't feel like going", if there are things you've been wanting in your life, stop and think about them and let them emerge. If you give yourself the space you've been needing, you will ordinarily feel better about yourself.
I will have to refer back to this book often because the author has so many good quotes. I should probably make sticky notes and hang them around my house so I remember to keep these things in mind. I don't think I identified with everything in the book. I think I'm a bit more moderate. But if something didn't fit me I was often able to say "oh, that's probably why <this person> does that".
I would recommend this book for anyone who's trying to find a place to fit in or who doesn't know why they haven't found their spot yet. This book says "that's ok, it'll come eventually" but more importantly "doing something you don't like for the sake of fitting in, doesn't help you be true to yourself". Probably something most of us could use to be reminded of.
A Lady By Midnight
A Lady by Midnight
by Tessa Dare
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
My Review:
I've looked forward to this book for a while. From the first Spindle Cove book, you know something is coming between Kate and Corporal Thorne, but you just don't know what. I was hooked on this book from the very first page and had trouble putting it down. Sadly, I had to stop for things like dinner but I still finished it in one day.
Kate can't remember life before the boarding school where she was dropped off at the age of five. She really wants to know about her family and has some idea that someone loved her once.
Corporal Thorne and Kate rub each other wrong and have generally avoided each other for a year. Being in the right place at the right time, they get thrown together for a little while and at the same time, family gets thrown into Kate's lap. While they try to figure out the family front, Corporal Thorne insists on watching out for Kate and things progress from there. Unknown to Kate, Corporal Thorne has a connection to her past and doesn't want her putting the pieces together.
I would never have guessed the twists in this story. The emotional connection is intense and at times heart-breaking. At other times I laughed out loud. There aren't many authors who could have me crying for how vulnerable the characters are and on the same page have me hysterically laughing. I will probably read this book again soon just to read the line "You took a melon for me" over and over again. :]
by Tessa Dare
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
My Review:
I've looked forward to this book for a while. From the first Spindle Cove book, you know something is coming between Kate and Corporal Thorne, but you just don't know what. I was hooked on this book from the very first page and had trouble putting it down. Sadly, I had to stop for things like dinner but I still finished it in one day.
Kate can't remember life before the boarding school where she was dropped off at the age of five. She really wants to know about her family and has some idea that someone loved her once.
Corporal Thorne and Kate rub each other wrong and have generally avoided each other for a year. Being in the right place at the right time, they get thrown together for a little while and at the same time, family gets thrown into Kate's lap. While they try to figure out the family front, Corporal Thorne insists on watching out for Kate and things progress from there. Unknown to Kate, Corporal Thorne has a connection to her past and doesn't want her putting the pieces together.
I would never have guessed the twists in this story. The emotional connection is intense and at times heart-breaking. At other times I laughed out loud. There aren't many authors who could have me crying for how vulnerable the characters are and on the same page have me hysterically laughing. I will probably read this book again soon just to read the line "You took a melon for me" over and over again. :]
Too Hot To Sleep
Too Hot to Sleep
by Stephanie Bond
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
My Review:
I love the premise of this book. Georgia calls the wrong number and ends up having phone sex with a stranger instead of her boyfriend. She doesn't know that she programmed her speed dial incorrectly, so she keeps calling the same number and the caller never clues her in.
Ken is a police officer and after the first call he meets Georgia by chance and really wants to know her more but doesn't know how to tell her about the phone calls.
This book is interesting enough that I've read it twice now. I like the interactions between Ken and Georgia although at some point it does get uncomfortable that Ken doesn't fess up and Georgia never looks into why her boyfriend doesn't sound right.
But the thing that really bothers me is right at the end of the book. Georgia's father had affairs while she was growing up and she thinks she's inherited his overly high, rampant sex drive. She doesn't want to commit to someone she feels passionate towards because if she lets that passion out it'll spill out everywhere and she'll start having sex with anyone she can. But when she finally mentions her father's affairs to her mother, her mother tells her "I never liked sex so it was inevitable that your father stray".
The light bulb goes off for Georgia then and now everything is ok because it wasn't her father's fault. That completely rubs me the wrong way. She even goes so far as to rationalize that her mom broke her vows first by not being interested enough in sex. Maybe that was an acceptable answer when this book was written but it just doesn't cut it for me. Mom was hurt, Dad didn't intend to do it but just couldn't help it, so that makes it ok. It just leaves me with a bad taste after reading the book. I like the writing and I like the story, but I just can't get over that.
by Stephanie Bond
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
My Review:
I love the premise of this book. Georgia calls the wrong number and ends up having phone sex with a stranger instead of her boyfriend. She doesn't know that she programmed her speed dial incorrectly, so she keeps calling the same number and the caller never clues her in.
Ken is a police officer and after the first call he meets Georgia by chance and really wants to know her more but doesn't know how to tell her about the phone calls.
This book is interesting enough that I've read it twice now. I like the interactions between Ken and Georgia although at some point it does get uncomfortable that Ken doesn't fess up and Georgia never looks into why her boyfriend doesn't sound right.
But the thing that really bothers me is right at the end of the book. Georgia's father had affairs while she was growing up and she thinks she's inherited his overly high, rampant sex drive. She doesn't want to commit to someone she feels passionate towards because if she lets that passion out it'll spill out everywhere and she'll start having sex with anyone she can. But when she finally mentions her father's affairs to her mother, her mother tells her "I never liked sex so it was inevitable that your father stray".
The light bulb goes off for Georgia then and now everything is ok because it wasn't her father's fault. That completely rubs me the wrong way. She even goes so far as to rationalize that her mom broke her vows first by not being interested enough in sex. Maybe that was an acceptable answer when this book was written but it just doesn't cut it for me. Mom was hurt, Dad didn't intend to do it but just couldn't help it, so that makes it ok. It just leaves me with a bad taste after reading the book. I like the writing and I like the story, but I just can't get over that.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
All I Ever Wanted
All I Ever Wanted
by Kristin Higgins
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
My Review:
I just finished my second read of this book. I love Kristin Higgins books for when I need to process/express emotions. I always cry at some part in each of her books. I laugh a bunch too.
Callie seems so confident and I loved reading all of her snappy comebacks. It felt like she never let anyone hurt her and yet she's let her school girl crush manipulate her for years. She sees it's time to move on but she has some laugh-out-loud bad dates.
On my first read, I had a really hard time with Ian. This book is written first-person from Callie's perspective and I felt Ian was rather harsh and mean sometimes. On this second read I see a bit better how he's growing too and I liked him more.
I think I cried through about the last third of this book. Parts of it are very sad, but underneath all that sadness is hope. Hope as you see Callie find the strength to grow up, to let go and to see her own power.
by Kristin Higgins
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
My Review:
I just finished my second read of this book. I love Kristin Higgins books for when I need to process/express emotions. I always cry at some part in each of her books. I laugh a bunch too.
Callie seems so confident and I loved reading all of her snappy comebacks. It felt like she never let anyone hurt her and yet she's let her school girl crush manipulate her for years. She sees it's time to move on but she has some laugh-out-loud bad dates.
On my first read, I had a really hard time with Ian. This book is written first-person from Callie's perspective and I felt Ian was rather harsh and mean sometimes. On this second read I see a bit better how he's growing too and I liked him more.
I think I cried through about the last third of this book. Parts of it are very sad, but underneath all that sadness is hope. Hope as you see Callie find the strength to grow up, to let go and to see her own power.
Forever And A Day
Forever and a Day
by Jill Shalvis
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
My Review:
I met Josh and Grace in Lucky In Love and At Last. I really liked both characters and anxiously waited for this book to be released. I had to go down to Target on release day and wait around while they searched for it.
I wish I could have read the whole thing in one sitting. I had to read it over three days instead. Jill Shalvis writes such likable characters. They have a nice heart and they're trying to do the right thing.
Josh and Grace had a nice emotional connection and they each had to figure out how to live their own lives instead of the lives their parents picked out although I would have liked to see how Grace's parents reacted to her growth.
This book was perfect for a Girl's Night In but be warned that it could be a really late night. Definitely a keeper. I'm sure I'll read the whole series multiple times. Can't wait for Jill's next book.
by Jill Shalvis
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
My Review:
I met Josh and Grace in Lucky In Love and At Last. I really liked both characters and anxiously waited for this book to be released. I had to go down to Target on release day and wait around while they searched for it.
I wish I could have read the whole thing in one sitting. I had to read it over three days instead. Jill Shalvis writes such likable characters. They have a nice heart and they're trying to do the right thing.
Josh and Grace had a nice emotional connection and they each had to figure out how to live their own lives instead of the lives their parents picked out although I would have liked to see how Grace's parents reacted to her growth.
This book was perfect for a Girl's Night In but be warned that it could be a really late night. Definitely a keeper. I'm sure I'll read the whole series multiple times. Can't wait for Jill's next book.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
The Alphabet vs. The Goddess
The Alphabet vs. The Goddess
by Leonard Shlain
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
My Review:
I found this book somewhat by accident. Clicking around on Amazon, looking for a book and found this as a recommendation. It looked so interesting, but I waited a while to read it. It's a very dense book and took a long time for me to read.
Normally I finish a book within 2-3 days. This book took me three weeks. It was packed with so much information, you just can't read it to quickly. In fact, I should have read it even slower in order to stop and look up some of the uncommon words he uses.
Anyway, this book takes you throughout human history to look at when the written alphabet came to each culture and what changes happened religiously and socially during that time. Dr. Shlain makes some pretty intriguing connections about how the creation of the written alphabet in a culture tends to be near the same time that male deities are exalted and female deities are pushed aside. He includes other "right brain" functions like art as something that gets disdained as a culture focuses more on the power of the written word.
Dr. Shlain jumped around years quite often during a given time period so I had some trouble connecting if something happened before or after (there were quite a few times that he mentions a year, then mentions something happening 10 years later, then something else 20 years earlier).
I love the "what ifs" and this book was very engrossing. Dr. Shlain wrote this book in 1998, so you have to extrapolate some of the technology that's progressed since then, but the end of this book is very hopeful. Maybe we are on the upswing of finding a good balance between male and female, logic and instinct, art and history.
by Leonard Shlain
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
My Review:
I found this book somewhat by accident. Clicking around on Amazon, looking for a book and found this as a recommendation. It looked so interesting, but I waited a while to read it. It's a very dense book and took a long time for me to read.
Normally I finish a book within 2-3 days. This book took me three weeks. It was packed with so much information, you just can't read it to quickly. In fact, I should have read it even slower in order to stop and look up some of the uncommon words he uses.
Anyway, this book takes you throughout human history to look at when the written alphabet came to each culture and what changes happened religiously and socially during that time. Dr. Shlain makes some pretty intriguing connections about how the creation of the written alphabet in a culture tends to be near the same time that male deities are exalted and female deities are pushed aside. He includes other "right brain" functions like art as something that gets disdained as a culture focuses more on the power of the written word.
Dr. Shlain jumped around years quite often during a given time period so I had some trouble connecting if something happened before or after (there were quite a few times that he mentions a year, then mentions something happening 10 years later, then something else 20 years earlier).
I love the "what ifs" and this book was very engrossing. Dr. Shlain wrote this book in 1998, so you have to extrapolate some of the technology that's progressed since then, but the end of this book is very hopeful. Maybe we are on the upswing of finding a good balance between male and female, logic and instinct, art and history.
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