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Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 27

recent reads

I can not travel without having a book with me. I don't understand how people can sit on airplanes with nothing to do, but twiddle their thumbs. I need something to pass the time. Some of the books below I read while traveling, others just at home.

My sister-in-law bought me this book for me for Christmas. It was a good bedtime read, meaning it was easy to put down and go to sleep, but not at all boring. I have a problem with reading books in bed and staying up way too late. This one was perfect for me!
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society_jpg
“ I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….
As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.
Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.
Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.


This was such a good book! I know I mentioned going to see the movie already, but it really did the book justice. Of course, the book was better, but the movie was still good.
Definitely a must read!
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Though he may not speak of them, the memories still dwell inside Jacob Jankowski's ninety-something-year-old mind. Memories of himself as a young man, tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Memories of a world filled with freaks and clowns, with wonder and pain and anger and passion; a world with its own narrow, irrational rules, its own way of life, and its own way of death. The world of the circus: to Jacob it was both salvation and a living hell.
Jacob was there because his luck had run out - orphaned and penniless, he had no direction until he landed on this locomotive 'ship of fools'. It was the early part of the Great Depression, and everyone in this third-rate circus was lucky to have any job at all. Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, was there because she fell in love with the wrong man, a handsome circus boss with a wide mean streak. And Rosie the elephant was there because she was the great gray hope, the new act that was going to be the salvation of the circus; the only problem was, Rosie didn't have an act - in fact, she couldn't even follow instructions. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.


My sister-in-law suggested this book to me and let me borrow it. I have wanted to read it for some time, but it is a thick book and for some reason that always stopped me.
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Two sisters competing for the greatest prize: the love of a king. When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of Henry VIII. Dazzled by the king, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen. However, she soon realizes just how much she is a pawn in her family's ambitious plots as the king's interest begins to wane and she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her sister, Anne. Then Mary knows that she must defy her family and her king, and take her fate into her own hands.

A rich and compelling tale of love, sex, ambition, and intrigue, The Other Boleyn Girl introduces a woman of extraordinary determination and desire who lived at the heart of the most exciting and glamorous court in Europe and survived by following her own heart.

Ty and I watched a season of The Tudors last year on netflix and it is about the same thing, just told in very different ways. The book gives you a better idea of what that time period was like for women.
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My current book:
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Ty recently read this book and suggested that I read it to get a better understanding of what residency would be like. Atul Gawande did a general surgery residency just like Ty will be starting in July. I would suggest this to other spouses whose husbands/wives are about to begin residnency, regardless of the specialty. Gawande does a great job of telling stories about patients to explain his points. I think I will probably touch more on this closer to graduation.

"Sometimes in medicine the only way to know what is truly going on in a patient is to operate, to look inside with one's own eyes. This book is exploratory surgery on medicine itself, laying bare a science not in its idealized form but as it actually is - complicated, perplexing, and profoundly human." Atul Gawande offers an unflinching view from the scalpel's edge, where science is ambiguous, information is limited, the stakes are high, yet decisions must be made. In dramatic and revealing stories of patients and doctors, he explores how deadly mistakes occur and why good surgeons go bad. He shows what happens when medicine comes up against the inexplicable: an architect with incapacitating back pain for which there is no physical cause; a young woman with nausea that won't go away; a television newscaster whose blushing is so severe that she cannot do her job. And in a richly detailed portrait of both the people and the science, Gawande also ponders the human factor that makes saving lives possible.


Have you read any good books lately?

Thursday, September 30

Thursday Thoughts

  • My work has been doing a month long fundraiser for the United Way. Yesterday was a mini garage sale and I purchased this little beauty.


  • This is a picture of my work wardrobe hanging in the hotel during my Utah trip.

I think I may need to spice things up. haha!





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I have been interested in the Holocaust since reading The Diary of Anne Frank as a young girl. I had the opportunity to visit the Holocaust museum in DC a couple of years ago and it was so interesting and heartbreaking. When I learned this was an option for the book club, I knew I had to read it.

De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself.







  • Remember my post about these gorgeous books?
books-penguin-classics
My copy of Little Women came in the mail yesterday from Amazon. It is really nice looking and I love it! (I ordered it months ago, but it wasn't available until the end of September.) I'm hoping to add more to my collection.

Thursday, August 5

book club

I'm sure that some of you have heard about Book Beginnings and Bookends, a new online book club. Rachel and Erin have dreamed up this great idea. I have actually never been a part of a book club. The book looked intriguing and I had been on the hunt for something good, but since reading The Help I haven't been able to find anything that tickled my fancy.

The book they have selected is:
The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes
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Or if you are like me and checked the book out at the local library
your cover probably looks like this:
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Twenty-eight years ago a North Carolina governor's young, pregnant wife was kidnapped. Now her remains have been found and a man charged with her murder. Only one person -- CeeCee Wilkes -- can refute the charges against him. But CeeCee disappeared years ago . . .

Eve Elliott is a successful therapist to troubled students, a loving wife, a mother deeply invested in her family. But her happiness is built on a lie. When she was a lonely, vulnerable young woman, a single decision made in innocence led to a dark night of unimaginable consequences. Now, forced to confront her past, she faces another terrible choice: reveal to her family that she is not who she seems, or allow a man to take the blame for a crime she knows he did not commit. If the choice affected only her life, Eve is certain she would do what is right. But though inaction means condemning an innocent man, it also means protecting her family from the mistakes of her past.

Corinne Elliott has always known she was different: the only redhead in a family of brunettes, the paralyzing shyness that contrasts with her sister's vivaciousness, the many fears -- of highways, of bridges, of public spaces -- that constrict her daily life. Still, with a new job possibility and a baby on the way, she's found some measure of happiness -- until the day she turns on the television and finds her mother's image on-screen.

Now, as the past explodes into the present, Corinne must confront the secrets she has always intuited, and find answers from the one person who knows the truth of what happened two decades ago -- CeeCee Wilkes.


I wanted you all to know about the book club before it actually started so you could join. If you aren't into book clubs, I would still recommend this book. I'm about half way through it and I can't put it down. I would love to take the afternoon off and curl up with my couch potato of a dog and read, read, read.

Wednesday, July 21

I want, I want

Have you all seen these gorgeous books from penguin?
books-penguin-classics

Emma discovered them at anthropologie and blogged about them. I instantly fell in love.
Emma (Penguin Classics)Search Amazon.com for penguin classics

bookshot-emma
In March, we were visiting Ty's grandparents and us girls went shopping (Ty's mom, gma and I). We were at a furniture store and they had these old editions of Reader's Digest books. The covers were so pretty and had fun preppy designs on them. The store had them displayed, but they weren't for sale. :( Ty's grandma had several at home and gave me a couple. Yay!
I found a couple of pictures online to give you an example.
There are a lot of covers out there prettier than these pictured.
Picture 214

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The penguin books remind me of the Reader's Digest books. Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics)

Little Women is one of my all time favorite books. I read this so many times as a young girl.
Little Women (Penguin Classics) 
little women
I went to Amazon and they are of course a better price on there than Anthro. (Speaking of Anthropologie, I sure wish the store here would hurry up and open!) I pre-ordered Little Women and I can't wait to get it!!

Don't you just want them all??
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I love the Emma, Sense & Sensibility and the Great Expectations covers.
Actually, I love them all!

Monday, June 7

latest book obsession

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I love Sophie Kinsella and this book was no exception. It was a great, light read, however it is not my current obsession.

This is my current obsession--The House of Night novels.

house of night


They are young adult books, but oh so good. And like every good young adult book based on vampires. These books were written by a fellow Oklahoman and the characters live in Oklahoma. It is so neat to read about places I have actually been. This must be how big city girls feel! haha. I must warn you though these books are a little more adult than the Twilight series, even though they are young adult books.

I bought the first four books in a boxed set from Amazon.  (which is actually much cheaper than buying them separately) I am on the fourth book and can't stop reading. I love series!



Has anyone else read the House of Night novels?

Friday, April 23

recent reads

My recent reads or in some cases recent listens:

I still haven't seen the movie, but I really enjoyed the book. I had heard mixed messages about the The Loveley Bones and I'm glad I decided to give it a try for myself. It was a great listen!
I had heard great things about this book, American Wife, through the blogvine*.
I listened to it as well and it started a little slow, I enjoyed the middle, and the end seemed to drag. But that could have been because I was listening to it, instead of reading it. I know a lot of people liked it, so I think it is worth a shot if you are interested.


This book, Loving Frank, appeared in a People magazine a year or two ago and I filed it away in mind. I was looking for a book for my DC trip and came across this at Target. I was excited to read it, because Frank Lloyd Wright had an impact here in Oklahoma.
It was an interesting read and very different from my usual chick lit. It gives a somewhat historical and mostly fictional account of FLW's affair. It was much darker than I usually prefer, but I did like it.

After Loving Frank, I needed a good chick lit book. I found this book, The Little Lady Agency, at a used bookstore Ty and I visited. It was very cute and the best part is that it is part of a series. I love books in series! And Sophie Kinsella says it is "Deliciously Witty." Enough said.


Next up on my list:

The Help



Little Bee

*Ty recently coined the term blogvine after listening to me say, Oh I read about that on a blog. Now whenever I mention anything new he asks me if I heard that from my blog friends. What can I say? You all blog about great things!
Has anyone read these? Any other books I need to add to my queue?

Tuesday, January 12

Books and Comfort Food

Ty bought me a series of books by Francine Rivers, called Mark of the Lion for my birthday.* One of my favorite books is Redeeming Love written by Rivers, so I was very excited to receive these. There are three books in this series and I am on the last book. They are full of history and center on Rome when it was at the height of its power. It took me a while to adjust to the first book, because it contained so much historical and background information. A little different than my vampire books and chick lit.

The last time we were in our hometown my MIL made a chicken and dumplings recipe from the January issue of Southern Living. I was a little hesitant when she told me this is what she was making. I had made chicken and dumplings last winter and it turned out awful. This recipe was so different than the one I tried and it was YUMMY. It definitely hit the spot.

I forgot to take a pic of my dish, so you will have to make do with an iPhone pic of my magazine.
Why is my magazine so wrinkled, you ask? Well, someone in my house might have spilled a thermos of coffee all over our coffee table and it wasn't me.

This is an easy version of the classic recipe.

1 (32 oz.) container low-sodium chicken broth
3 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 can reduced-fat cream of chicken soup
1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning
1 (10.2 oz.) can refrigerated jumbo buttermilk biscuits
2 carrots, diced
3 celery ribs, diced

1. Bring first 4 ingredients to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high; return to a low boil.

2. Place biscuits on a lightly flowered surface or on wax paper. Roll or pat each biscuit to 1/8-inch thickness; cut into 1/2-inch wide strips.

3. Drop strips, 1 at a time, into boiling broth mixture. Add carrots and celery. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent dumplings from sticking.

*My birthday was in November. I didn't want to cause confusion since I had blogged about two of my birthday presents two days in a row.

Friday, April 17

Good Reads

I love to read, but lately I only seem to do it when I am travelling a lot. I cannot sit on an airplane without having a book to read. I have made several trips to the library this year. I love going to the library and browsing for books. I find so many good ones. Unfortunately, I will only allow myself to check out 2 at a time. If I check out more than that I never get them all read by the due date and I always forget to renew them online, so I end up with a fine.
So I have started taking pics of the books that I like with my phone. This way I remember the ones that I want to go back and get later. I also love it when other blogs give book recommendations. I always write the name of the book down, so that I can remember to check it out/buy it later.

Here are some of the books that I have read lately. Click on the name of the book to read a description--It will take you to the amazon page for it.

I read The Devil in the Junior League on my trip to Alabama.

I loved this book: Schooled by Anisha Lakhani.

Schooled reminded me a lot of The Nanny Diaries, which I also loved, so I checked this out from the library on CD and listened to it on my last recruitment road trip. (Don't judge the book based on the movie.)

I have never read a Jane Austen novel before. I always liked the idea of reading one. I tried a few times in high school, but could never get into them. I love all the movies based on her books, so I decided to give this book a try. I love being transported back into another era. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict.


Mojito Maven actually blogged about this book. I went online to the library's website to reserve the book and there was a 5 week wait on it. I figured it must be really good! I am about halfway through it and I really like it.
Bitter is the New Black

Schooled was my favorite out of this bunch of books. I'm hoping she has written other books. I'm off to search for that right now....
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