Zero stars = hated it
One star = did not like it at all
Two stars = eh, it was okay
Three stars = liked it
Four stars = really, really liked it
Five stars = absolutely loved it
2-Stars (2)
**Jaws
The
movie was SO much better. The book was
very different (Hooper dies in the water cage, but not before he has an affair
with Brody’s wife). They also came home
every night after trying to kill the fish each day. And…the book was kind of vulgar. I almost gave it only one star, but the
actual writing was pretty good. (owned,
donated to LFL)
**If
There’s No Tomorrow
Sigh. I really need to check to see if books are YA
before I grab them ha ha. This wasn’t a
BAD book, it just wasn’t for me. Because
it’s VERY Young Adult. And, don’t get me
wrong, sometimes YA is great (Hunger Games!), but this was EXACTLY what you
think YA would be….junior in high school who is in love with her best friend (a
guy), gets in a horrible car wreck and is the only one that survives, yada yada
yada. It’s very teen-agery. As it should be, because it’s YA! Anyways.
Not for me. But great for someone
else I’m sure. (owned, donated to LFL)
3-Stars (3)
***The
Complete Book of Clean (non-fiction)
Nothing
earth shattering here, but there are some great homemade cleaning recipes and
tips. Plus, it is a beautiful book. (owned, keeper)
***More
Than Just Making It (non-fiction)
I
am always fascinated by personal ‘getting out of debt’ stories. Maybe it’s because I was there once and had
to live an extremely simple lifestyle (I used to have to go to the library to
use the Internet because I didn’t have it at home and I didn’t have cable
because I couldn’t afford it). Although
this book was somewhat preachy (she quotes Bible verses of course) it was
really, really good. She tells her story
about how they got into debt, how they lived during debt (she became an expert
on feeding their family of 6 on a super ‘bare bones’ budget), how they got out
of debt and how they now still live well below their means (even though they
don’t have to). And how dealing with her
pride issues was a HUGE factor in their success. I guess I’m a sucker for a good success
story. Plus, I love learning new ways to
save money/cut back. I get teased
sometimes for stacking coupons and looking for deals, but we save a LOT of
money that way. (owned, keeper)
***Betty
Crocker’s Guide to Easy Entertaining:
How to Have Guests and Enjoy Them (non-fiction)
Ha
ha. I picked this book up for .50 at the
monthly book sale at the library. It’s
from 1959, so I bought it strictly for entertainment purposes. There’s actually a line in there that says ‘make
sure you have cigarettes and ashtrays readily available’. Ha! I
read it because my dog destroyed part of it and as I was attempting to tape it
back together I read it. It also has
some recipes. It was entertaining and
completely outdated (which is why it was entertaining!). (owned, keeper)
4-Stars (1)
****Everyone
Brave is Forgiven
Yay! A 4-star read. It is fiction, however it is based on the
author’s grandparents letters to each other during World War II. It takes place in London. It was a quick read, although I didn’t WANT
it to go quickly, I wanted to savor it because it was so good. I just wanted the story to continue. It was very engaging. There were some slow spots though, but it
still was a fantastic read (at 400+ pages).
Loved it! (owned, keeper)
5-Stars (1)
*****Top 10 Iceland
Okay, so I know this is weird to include as a 'book read', but it's a book, and, well, I read it. We've always gotten travel guides to places we go from Eyewitness Travel because they are full color, not too overwhelming, and include a pull-out map in the back. I know that all of these things can be found on the internet, but do you know how incredibly overwhelming it is to research places to go online? You get thousands of recommendations. While this is nice, you could spend DAYS or WEEKS even sorting though things to do in every inch of the country. With these little books, they gather the top 10 places to see, and they break it down by location, by type of 'attraction' (for Iceland, they have the top 10 waterfalls, the top 10 volcanoes, the top 10 glaciers, etc.). And of course there are restaurants, museums, historical landmarks, parks, etc. They also have lots of maps, which is helpful. We are going to spend our time in southern Iceland, so we can kind of rule out anything that is way up north. It's soooooo much easier than going online and getting sucked into the world wide web for 4 hours at a time and get nothing accomplished. With these books, you get your little sticky tabs, tab the places you are interested in, and THEN go online to see what people have to say. It works like a charm. We did it for France, the UK, Belgium, and Hawaii. They are great little books. And they are little enough that you can take them along with you and they fit easily into your bag.
See? I whipped this one out on the train to France to Belgium when we went:
So I didn't read a lot of books this month, but it was a very busy month.
Total Books Read: 7 (4 non-fiction, 3
fiction)
Formats:
E-Books: 0
Audio: 0
Real Books: 7
Abandoned books: 0
