What I'm reading now

I've actually got three books going right now.

First, for my 12 grade English class, I'm re-reading The Fellowship of the Ring. It's fun exploring this book with them. Some have read it before, but I actually have one student who has never even seen the movie!! She's in for a real treat once she finishes the book!

For myself, I'm reading A Walk in the Woods. It's a memoir of an out-of-shape guy who had just moved back to the US after living abroad for 20 years and he decided to reconnect with America by thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail. I'm about 150 pages into it and have both laughed out loud and exclaimed in disgust. I love it!

I'm also reading The New Rules of Lifting for Women. I have to admit that it was the subtitle of this book that caught my eye "Lift like a man, Look like a goddess". Who wouldn't want that?? I'll post a full review of this one on my fitness blog, Fit 4 a Lifetime, once I finish it.

What are y'all reading now?

Stay tuned for new reading updates!! I'm making the metamorphosis into a Bibliovore again!!!

Storm Front

This is the first book in the Dresen Files series. I enjoyed it very much. The main character has a dry, sarcastic sense of humor and I always love that! I look forward to reading more of the books in this series.

Highly recommended: 4 out of 5.

The Wedding Officer

My mom picked this book up on a whim at Wal*mart and she loved it so much, she sent it to me! I read this while relaxing in Spain and it was WONDERFUL!! A lovely look at the Naples area of Allied-occupied Italy during World War II: the lifestyle, the food (or lack thereof) and the people. Oh, and a sweet love story is included too!

Highly recommended: 4 out of 5.

The Twilight Saga

I know I reviewed Twilight last year, but I'm going to lump my reviews of the 3 other books in the series into one.

New Moon was a good, quick read. I enjoyed the development of Jacob's character and I enjoyed the twist to the series found in this book.

Eclipse was pretty good, too. I particularly liked the development of the love triangle between Edward, Bella and Jacob. By the end of this book, I was definitely on Team Jacob!

I found Breaking Dawn to be disturbing from the outset and it progressively became more so as it went along. In the end, I chose not to finish this book because I was unhappy with the direction the book was going and, according to Miss Meyer's vampire and werewolf "rules", there could be no going back. She took a major departure from her previous books and it didn't go well, to say the least.

New Moon: 3 out of 5
Eclipse: 4 out of 5
Breaking Dawn: did not finish

The Cubicle Next Door

Another book by Siri Mitchell that caught my attention because of its ties to the Air Force. I found the main character's militant "green attitude" to be very off-putting. The main male character turns on the water to start washing dishes and she immediately turns it off telling him "most people use more water than they need" (meanwhile, it takes 7-8 minutes for the water to get hot in my kitchen and I will NOT wash dishes in cold water - that is just gross). That is just a minor example of her anti-people/pro-planet attitude that pervades the entire book.

I was also put off that her choice to not engage in certain pre-marital behaviors had nothing at all to do with God (this is "Christian" chick-lit, after all), but everything to do with not wanting to repeat her own mother's mistakes.

It almost seems to me that, after reading 2 of Ms. Mitchell's books, that she thinks that having her characters go to church once in a while qualifies her books to be on the shelf with other Christian titles. I don't think that is right and, even though I own a few more of her titles, I won't be reading any more of her work.

Bleh: 2 out of 5.

My Sister's Keeper

I can certainly see why this book has generated so much controversy. The topic of "designer babies" is one that we will be facing for many years to come, both people doing as the family in the book (designing their baby to save the life of their already existing child) and people who simply want to dictate gender and traits of their children rather than leaving it in God's hands where it belongs.

I did think this book was pretty well written right up until the last few pages which felt like a complete cop-out on the part of the author.

It was okay: 3 out of 5.