A Box of Matches

Oh God, was this book hilarious. All it consisted of was a man's inner thoughts as he got up each morning, enjoyed the quiet in his home, lit a fire and brewed some coffee.

I gave this book to my mom to read and she loved it too. We laughed at this guy's personality that came through in the book and how, oddly enough, there were a few continuous story lines running through all of these ramblings.

Great, easy book to read. I'll probably read this again!

Cat's Eye

I LOVED Margaret Atwood's "Handmaid's Tale", but I have tried other books of her's (like "Blind Assassin" and "Moral Disorder") and didn't like them at all. I started to wonder...

Then I read this one and I LOVED it. Again, it's a story that chronicals a young girl's torments as a child and the dynamics of groups of girlfriends. The reader saw things through the naive and innocent eyes of the child in the story, but in the back of your mind, you really felt for her. It was heartbreaking to see some of the situations she walked right into and just put up with. I don't even think she was mature enough to realize the damage she was doing to herself, even later in life as an adult and a mother herself.

It really hit home with recent stories of a few of my students about being bullying. Some of the sweetest and nicest students I have in my classes put up with the nasty torture of their peers during the school day. They come to me, as some source of comfort (usually, more of just a sounding board or a friendly ear), but I feel powerless to help them. They don't want to stand up to their tormentors for fear of making things worse, and they also won't tell an adult (besides me) or let the adult tell an authority figure for fear of looking like a tattle-tale (and again, making things worse). Growing up is hard. I try to be the best support I can for these students without making things worse for them, but it's difficult. My only advice to them is that eventually, they get through this period of their life and it will all be in the past. What else can I do?

All I know is that I vow to raise my children to not only NOT be bullies, but to stand up as advocates for those who won't speak up for themselves AGAINST the bullies of the world. I want my children to be secure enough in themselves to know right from wrong, to make wise decisions and to stand up for the underdogs in society. At least, I hope I can do that! :)

The Know It All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World

I first saw this book at Border's and ALMOST bought it. BUT...then I was lucky enough to find it at the library (for free! whoohoo!)

This book had me laughing out loud on almost every page. I LOVE Jacobs' writing style. He's absolutely hilarious.

He picked up on what his father had done years before: try to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica from A to Z. He comments on various things he's reading and it's just hilarious (I need a better word for "hilarious") He also keeps mentioning random things that connect to what he's reading to his life like he and his wife trying to have a child, competing with his father and brother-in-law in the battle of the wits, impressing friends and family with his new found information, etc. He's awkward and honest and funny and...I just loved this book.

Plus, I learned a lot of interesting and random facts to add to that over-flowing section of my brain: Random Facts No One Cares To Know Unless You're On Their Trivial Pursuit Team.

I like to collect useless information. :)

98 Reasons For Being

This book was a little strange, but decent.

It deals with a Jewish lady who has suddenly stops talking and is taken to a mental hospital by her mother. She was living in a ghetto in Europe pre-Holocaust. I think that might have been the reason I was interested in the book: I was currently teaching about WWII at the time...

The story involves various characters, patients and doctors at the hospital as well as the nurses that are charged with caring for them (all of them who are secretly nasty to each other AND the patients). It was interesting to see the different afflictions the people at the hospital had (including a man who insisted on dressing in women's clothing and acting like a woman) and considering the time period they were living it. Today, a lot of those things go on without a second thought but back then, it STILL existed but was far more scandalous. It really makes you think about things...

A decent book, not sure if I would suggest it to anyone or read it again. It was OK.

Love in the Present Tense

I loved, loved, LOVED this book. I think I read it in about 2 nights. I cried in the end. I love books like that.

The main character, a little boy, touches the heart of people around him(despite the horrible things he has had to endure, both emotionally and physically, he remains positive and loving.) I can't even describe how great this story is, you'll just have to take my word for it and read it yourself. They should make this book into a movie! Very inspirational!

Obsession, Deceit, and Really Dark Chocolate

Ok, I know this isn't the type of book I EVER go for (in fact, usually I avoid these books like the plague), so let me put up my disclaimer: I was stressed out with work and needed something TOTALLY mindless to ease my stress.

So. I'll start out by saying, this book actually was not half bad. I mean the writing style, sure...it was your typical mystery/romance/chick lit surface level and obvious story telling. But the story itself wasn't too bad. At least it kept my interest. Completely unrealistic and all that, but still...I kept turning the pages to see what crazy antics the character would get into next.

THEN...about 3/4 through the book, I had the urge to throw it at full speed across the room and spit on it. The story went from, "oh yeah right, that would NEVER happen in the real world" to,

"are you f*ing kidding me? Did I SERIOUSLY just read about plushies and furries?"

Yes. The strange, sexual fetishes of people who either dress up as animals or....have their way with actually stuffed animals. As in, the toys.

Now, I hadn't heard of these people since HIGH SCHOOL where we giggled and gagged at the thought of people walking this earth with us actually BEING like that. But, back in our denying brains somewhere, we knew it was all just too crazy and probably had to be true.

Now, at the age of 23, here I sat, reading a story that some adult (probably a good 10 years or so older than myself) actually turned into a publisher - straightfaced - who probably turned it over to an editor, straightfaced (maybe they happened the other way around, I don't know) - who then published it, shipped it, and sold it to bookstores and libraries across the country.

With a straight face.

Honestly, I was so disturbed. Not at the subject matter, (geez, I'm not that much of a prude!) but that people would even CARE enough to write that into a story (even a cheapy chick lit mystery like this one) or even CARE to pick this up and read it?!?! There are a million other books worthy of your time, people. Unless, your one of those plushies or furries. Then, I guess, by all means, read away. I'm sure there isn't too much out there to peak your interest...

Unless, maybe everyone else who read it was as blindsided as I was.

It's a trick, then! A scam! They don't tell you on the back of the book that the story will become completely ridiculous after you're all into the story about 3/4 of the way done and you're so angered you'll just read through the rest of the garbage just to see what could possibly come from this train-wreck of a story. I didn't feel so bad, considering I had only borrowed this book from the library (FBI: it was an accident! I didn't know) but I can't help but think that some people out there probably BOUGHT this book with their hard-earned money! I mean, this book was part of a series this author had written. What if the other books were completely normal (and "normal" is a generous word) and this one...I don't know.

Ok. I realized this is long enough to rant about a book I wanted to spit up my cheez-its on and stomp on in the corner of the living room. I digress...

The book was pretty much garbage, all around.

The End.

Black Swan Green

This was another story that was told from a British teen's perspective, this time a boy during the Cold War era. Loved this story! It was a good portrayal (must have been semi-autobiographical) of the torments children experience while growing up, the triumphs, dares, etc. It was really interesting to get the male point of view on growing up. The dynamics of groups of boys is very different from groups of girls. Glad I was able to get the insight into the world of boys. Ha.
Woven into the story is also the gradual decline of the marriage of the main character's parents. He was almost as blindsided as I was when I was told MY parents were getting divorced, yet looking back, you have to say for yourself "how DEEP in denial were you!?"

Cute story, I would probably read this one again.

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets

This book was definitely my style reading. A story based around British teens in the post-war era. Typical female teenage drama (funny, how the dynamics of the relationships between girlfriends doesn't seem to change from era to era).

The story centers around a character who you can tell from the beginning - seems flat and boring but is on the brink of showing her true personality. Sure enough, she welcomes an eccentric friend into her life who *surprise surprise* brings out her true colors. I love stories like this. The seemingly flat and boring friend almost always ends up outshining the crazy, new, eccentric friend. Loved this book. It was nice to come home to after a day at school/mock trial and relax with this.

Plus, I had bought a pair of rain/snow boots around the same time I was reading this and the one character kept talking about her "wellies". One quick google and I find out that's just another word for "galoshes". Ha. No kidding!

Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Talk about a dark creature...right after those two cheerful and light stories by Jackson, I decide to re-read The Bell Jar (one of my all time favorites) and then become obsessed with finding out more about Plath (I even borrowed Sylvia and watched part of that DVD) Too lame, I turned it off. Plus, Tim came home and saw me watching it and I was embarassed (probably the real reason I turned it off, haha) ANYWAY...

I basically just skimmed through this book (stopping at the random drawings and parts that caught my attention - the book is HUGE) and combined that with obsessive googling about Plath and her family and life full of depression. Talk about a buzz kill. I don't know why things like this get me obsessed. It's dark, it's depressing, it's sad and a shame and messed up and I can't stop looking for MORE just like it. Eventually, I got tired of driving around with the book staring up at me from the floor of the passenger seat of my car and I took it back to the library. I swear, if the FBI ever did an investigation and combined the things I check out from the library/google/secretly flip through at Borders, they would lock me up. Or, heavily medicate me.

Nah, I'm just being melodramatic.

Time to play some catch up...

Geez...totally dropped the ball on this one. I have been reading, but this has turned into another typical journal/diary for Courtney...starts out great then HUGE gaps of time goes by with nothing. I am not loyal journaler/blogger/whatever. That's ok... I'll add some of the books I can remember reading...

Between, Georgia and Gods in Alabama were actually two books on CD I got and LOVED. Both stories were very similar (mother/daughter/female relationships) with an estranged love/good guy vs. the bad guy story weaved in there somewhere. I liked Jackson's writing style and I would definitely read other stories she has written. Each story ended in a happy way, and I liked that (for a change! - I'm a dark creature sometimes!)