Mortified

I bought this book because of the goofy picture on the cover. I am SO glad I judged this book by the cover. I laughed, cried, and cringed along with the authors of terrible journal entries and letters contained in this book. At one point, I really thought someone had stolen my own journal and used it as theirs. Oh, yes, there were many moments like this.

I finished half the book in the parking lot of Target. I sat there and started reading and did not want to stop. When it really hit home, I had to put it aside, but not before I decided that my best friend, co-author of some amazingly embarrassing correspondence had to read the book. I took it with me everywhere, reading tiny snippets while waiting to go into the doctor or in the parking lot when I was early for lunch with a friend or even while I was waiting for my small group to start in the church parking lot.

If you journaled at all, you need to read this book. It is so amazingly funny and current and wonderful. It is okay to shudder a little about the stupid things you remember and relate to. It will make you feel 12, 14, 16, or however old again. That is a really great thing. Even if it does make you feel a little sick for a moment to remember how obsessed you were with that all-consuming crush, it is nice to remember that feeling of love and desire and even hurt that is not so easy to experience as an adult.

Please read this book and share it if you can.

Is the B*tch Dead or What?

I didn't want to read this book. A casual acquaintance loaned it to me because she thought I enjoyed the first one, mostly because I actually read the first one. We are having lunch today, so I wanted to finish it up. It was a good as the first in this series, and by that, I mean it was terrible. I struggled to get through it. The only redeeming character in the book is Tracee, the best friend, who is discovering Jesus.

There are so many characters in this book, it is difficult to keep up. Each chapter (which are generally 2-3 pages long) is from another point of view. There are such gems of writing as this:

"The nurses were on their toes, but Ritz would rather have Tracee help her to the bathroom, help her eat, and other personal stuff like that."

I would not accept a sentence like than in a freshman comp class. Really?!? Please, Wendy Williams, stop writing. It would help the world.

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

I just finished this novel. I had already seen the movie, but wanted to finish the book because I borrowed it from the library and it was due today. It didn't take long to read the book, but while I was read it, I was  not totally involved. I don't particularly like the story, not because he is a war vet or because she is a teacher, but because the characters are quite static. There is no great revelation, and while there is a death, because there is always a death in every Nicholas Sparks book, it really isn't that gripping. I am sure that old Nick wants to pump out novels while he is hot, but this is really just a miss, at least for me. I was not impressed and I am really glad that I was able to take it back to the library and did not get stuck spending my own money on it.

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

I wasn't sure what to read when I grabbed this book from the overwhelming stack sitting in the guest bedroom that houses just books now. Fortunately, I picked Me Talk Pretty One Day because I thought it might be something that would be entertaining. Honestly, I laughed out loud and nearly cried many times while reading the witty essays. There were times when I wanted to share the book with others and times when I thought I should keep it for reference for something else, including my ENG 090 class. I was afraid one would take offense and I would get in trouble, though.

I think my favorite essay was the final one about Sedaris's father's obsession with hoarding food until it was unrecognizable and then eating it. I laughed and laughed. I was talking about this book at work and a coworker told me that she had read some of Sedaris's other works but not this one. I couldn't wait to rush home, finish it, and take it back to her. I was excited to share the book, happy to give that little bit of my life to her.

Read and enjoy!

The Vow by Kimmer and Krickitt Carpenter

I watched this movie and LOVED it. I am anxiously awaiting when it comes out on blu-ray because I want to buy it and keep it forever. I read the book because I heard that there was more to the story that wasn't revealed in the movie. The source was correct. The movie makes the husband seem perfect and the book sheds light on his being human. The book is actually VERY different than the movie. It is more focused on Krickitt (the wife) and her prayer journal and spiritual life rather than just the time when the memory was lost. It is actually really beautiful. It inspired me and made me want to be as devout as she was. The courtship between Krickitt and Kimmer was this beautiful story.  Don't read on if you don't want the book spoiled.

They met when Kim was a coach for a college baseball team and Krickitt worked for a sports business. They talked on the phone, then wrote letters, then exchanged photos, then met in person. It seemed like a true courtship, with both of them being virgins when they were married. The book was great, not better than the movie, but quite different. I enjoyed it and I highly recommend it.

Romancing the Dead by Tate Hallaway

I bought this book for $2.99 from a discount store, and trust me, it was too much. I read this book, only because I had started it and I felt like it was wasteful to just stop reading it. I wish I had. It referred to gods and goddesses and vampires that were turned through alchemy and witches. All I can say is: don't waste your time.

Love The One You're With by Emily Giffin

So, first off, I just realized that her name is Emily Giffin, not Griffin, so for the mistakes in my last posts, I apologize. Now on to my review of this book. Wow. I didn't expect this book to be this good.

I liked Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and even that other book she did that I just read about the doctor and his wife and the little boy and Carol... You know the book? Well, Carol makes her cameo here. She is a minor character in a book that fills out the minor character in that book.

Can I just reveal that I related to this book to the point that I was talking out loud to myself and blushing hard core because I understood very much what the main character was going through. She was married to a great man, but in love with a man in her past, a man she had an intense love for, and though things were touch and go with their relationship, there was something she had to find out, regardless of everything else that was going on in her life. There was one particular passage that really struck me, and against my better judgement, because I know this will come back to haunt me one day because everything I have ever posted has, I am going to post it, if only to take it out of my head:

                Time passes, but neither of us speaks, as Leo’s hand completely covers mine. The weight and warmth of it is the same as it was as the diner, the day all of this began, but the gesture feels completely different. This contact is not incidental to a conversation. It is the conversation. It is also an invitation. An invitation I accept with a languid turn of my wrist until my palm is up, facing his, and we are officially holding hands. I tell myself that it is the most innocent of gestures. Grade-school crushes hold hands. Parents and children hold hands. Friends hold hands.

                But not like this. Never like this.

                I listen to the sound of Leo breathing, his face close to mine, as our fingers interlock, unlace, rearrange. And we fly east that way, eventually drifting off, suspended in the sky, in time, together. 

So here it is. I offer this section to you in an attempt to get you to read this book, to love it as much as I almost loved it. There were parts that I wanted to be different, but isn't that the way with life? If only some small little thing were changed, it could could all turn out differently. 

Anyway, this book it making the trip to my sister's apartment, and hopefully back here, so I can guard what I have found and think about what has been excavated.  Read it and enjoy it. Then, safely store up what you got from it.