Here are some of the books that I have devoured with summer:
Love Walked In and Belong To Me by Marisa De Los Santos
I read "Belong to Me" back when I worked at Barnes and Noble during my lunch breaks and absolutely loved it. I did not realize that it was a sequel to "Love Walked In," which was fine because the story was cohesive enough to not need the first book. I seriously loved that book and was frequently in tears as I poured over it's pages while eating my sandwiches in the break room.
I recently got the audio of "Love Walked In" and listened to it as I moved into our new place in Provo. I ALSO super loved it. After listening to this first one, and remembering parts, but not all of the sequel that I had read a couple of years earlier, I NEEDED to read the second one again. So, early on during our stay in Chicago I went over to Barnes and Noble to purchase the second one.
I love this author's writing style. It's so casual, laid back, and personable. Every chapter would be told from the perspective of a different character - in the first book, it alternated between just 2 characters, but in the second there were 3 different voices. I loved that these books had no serious beginning, middle, and end... it just followed people living their lives, just giving us snapshots of how they live and how they were all connected. There was no major problem that needed to be solved, or tricky obstacle, besides those found in normal life. I loved it. I highly recommend these books for some easy reading that will make you laugh and cry multiple times over. - good stuff.
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The husband and I got the audio of this book as well and listened to it on our trek out to Chicago. Overall, it was a great story line and was fun to listen to. It made our long drive go faster and it was highly entertaining. Word of caution - there were a couple parts in the book that we had to fast-forward through due to the inappropriate happenings which I thought were quite unnecessary to the plot line. For that reason, I have a hard time recommending this book to anyone. We have yet to see the movie........
The Giver by Lois Lowry
We also got the audio version of this for the road. I have read this book a couple times and absolutely LOVED it, but the husband had never read it. It was fun to see the husband listen to this story and try to figure it out as it unfolded. He loved it, and I loved it, again. If you have not read this, SERIOUSLY read it. It's very short, very quick, but very thought provoking and makes you ask a lot of good questions. We really enjoyed listening to it together and to have good discussions afterwards.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
I picked this book that also had many other of Kate Chopin's works up a while ago [probably during my barnes and noble days where I spent the majority of my paycheck instead of saving it....] because I heard it was a classic, I had friends who had to read it during high school, and I wanted to be a well informed individual. Overall, I was disappointed in the book. I know it's a classic, and it was groundbreaking for it's time, and covered a lot of controversial issues....but I found it rather dull and not that impacting. When I reached the end, I did not realize that it was the end of the book. I turned the page and was ready for the next chapter, but it was over and the next short story started. I did not enjoy the book and felt like I accomplished or learned very little at the end of it.
Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters by Alan Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa
This was my educational sociological book that I read this summer. It was written by two evolutionary psychologists who attempt to answer some of life's interesting questions. The first part of their book was explaining their theory as evolutionary psychologists, and how that differed from the mainstream sociological thought and in the next chapters they covered various topics from dating to religion and used their theory to explain specific phenomenon. Overall it was interesting, I don't 100% agree with their theory, but they made some interesting points and made for a fun read and interesting chats with the husband.
The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis
I loved reading this. It gives a very interesting perspective on Satan and some of the tactics that he uses on us. This book is a series of letters that a more accomplished Tempter to another tempter giving him advice on how to sway and tempt mortals. I seriously enjoyed this book and was grateful for the insight it gave me on some topics. This book has been quoted a number of times in General Conference and for good reason. It helped me learn a little bit more about myself and opened my eyes. I highly recommend this book.
Also, I have read dozens of children's books :) The house that we're staying at has quite a collection and I've enjoyed reading them to myself. Who doesn't love a good picture book? Also - I have bought......umm.... dozens and dozens and dozens of children's during my garage sale-ing escapades which I will share with you soon. I have stocked up on some classic children's books for our little family and read through a good portion of them before I packed them up. :)
I'm in the middle of a couple other books at the moment as well, and will post my thoughts on feelings on those as I finish them up.
The husband and I are book hoarders - for real. I think we have bought a new bookcase about every 4 months of our marriage - we cannot keep this up, friends......It looks like this is the only way that we can work with our addiction, but really, I LOVE it and would like an entire room in our house dedicated to holding all of our precious books :)
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