Blogging Book Club - January

If I had to say I had some kind of super power, it would be speed reading.  I can devour a book.  Think cookie monster with a cookie...

I've discovered that I can request books from my library online, and they get them for me, and call me when they are ready to pick up.   How easy is that, especially when you have kids?!?!  Why have I not already been doing this???? 

You and I now know that Trevan prefers non fiction, my favorites are anything based on a true story, historical fiction, true stories, and anything inspirational, but I like non-fiction too. 

Here are the books I read this month, if you've read any of them and have comments to add, please do.  Or, if based off the books that I liked you'd think I'd like another book, please share! 

1.  Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig,  It was a little slow to get into, but I liked being able to hear the other half of the story from Gone With the Wind.  I wish I had read it right before or after my trip to Charleston though, with it being the main location of the book.

2.  One Summer by David Baldacci, this is one of those summer reads even though I read it in July.  Easy read.  Liked it.

3.  Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks, Another summer, easy read.  I feel like the story from this book has been told many times, but it had an unexpected twist...  Most likely, it will be a movie in 10 years...

4.  What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarity,  I enjoyed this book.  Another easy read.  What would it be like if I had an accident and forgot the last 10 years of my life?  Crazy. 

5.  The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew, This was another easy read.  It is based during segregation times, and like most books based during those times, it was a little depressing.  I just can not imagine living during that time.  This book could have been better, maybe had a better ending like The Help or something.  I don't know if I would really recommend this one...  but it had this quote in it I liked,

She said, in her most religious voice, "One nation under God, indivisible. 'It's so wonderful."

"Hmph." Mary crossed her arms on her chest.

I asked her, "Don't you think it's a good thing, adding God to the pledge?"

"Putting God in the pledge and on money -- that's like a sign in the sky saying 'air.'  Sometimes Mary surprised me, the things she thought about. 

6.  House at Riverton by Kate Morton, This took a little while for me to get into...  It was all right, but maybe I had too high of expectations for it? 

7.  The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, I liked this book of hers much better!  Good read.  Though,  do all of her books end kind of sad? 

I did start two books that I did not finish:

1.  Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close  (It felt like this story wasn't going anywhere, or it was going to slowly, and then the potty mouths started... so it wasn't hard to stop reading.)
2.  Island of Lost Girls by Jennifer McMahon (Just too many garbage can words for me...)

If a book has a few pages with A LOT of  'f - bombs' in it, I'm totally turned off.  In all my life I've never been around someone that talks like that, so I'm not interested in reading about a character that does.  Even in all the war books I've read that had language in them - they don't go crazy with that word.  To me it's just kind of tacky/trashy, even if it's a character in a book.  (But, I get it if they are trying to make the character trashy, I just have no desire to read it...)   So, those books don't get finished. 

And the most inspiring book I read this month was:

8.  The Walk by Richard Paul Evans, This book was such an easy read, and by easy, I mean 150 pages in 40 minutes.  (It does have more than 150 pages...)  I really, really enjoyed it, and there is a second book after this one, that I can't wait to read!   This man loses everything and decides to walk across the country...

I liked this quote from the character's journal when he was a kid after his mom gave him his first journal that I think can apply to blogging;

"Mom says it doesn't matter what I write and if I wait to write just the importent things then I'll probably never write anything, because importent things just look like everything else except when you look back on them.  The thing is to write what yor thinking and feeling."

This part in the book reminded me of my mom,

"When I was a child, my mother taught me about God.  My mother was a big fan-even as she was dying.  Especially as she was dying.  She would pray, not as some do, repeating a script or chant, or shouting out to an empty universe, but as if He were actually int he same room.  There were times, during her prayers, that I opened my eyes and looked around to see who she was talking to."

This reminded me about what my dad said at my mom's funeral.  She prayed as if God was right there in the room with you.  Like if you opened your eyes you might see Him.

What did you read this month????