Currently Reading: Blood Red Road by Moria Young

Finished Maine early this evening. Decided to start Blood Red Road by Moria Young.

Maine post to come.

Currently Reading: Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

One Day by David Nicholls

One Day By David Nicholls has been on my radar for over a year now. I knew I wanted to read it but just was never in the right mood. On one of my last trips to Borders I found it on the Buy One, Get One 50% Off table along with The Passage, so I picked a copy up.

I was curious to read this as it was written by a man but is a love story. It is the story of Emma and Dex. The book begins with Rachel and Dex spending the night of their graduation together. They spend the next day together and go their separate ways.  While they both take very different paths after graduation, the two develop an very intimate friendship. And beneath the surface the reader can see the love they both have for one another. The book chronicles their life-long friendship and the near-misses of their romance.

There were parts of this novel that I thought were pretty predictable. And there were times I wanted to tell Emma to stop talking to Dex because he was being such a jerk. And I wanted to tell Emma how fabulous she was because she didn't seem to realize it. This was a great book for reading by the pool.

I gave it 3/5 stars.

The Forgotten by Kate Morton

Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden is our June book club book. I decided to get started early because it is 560 pages long, which we didn't realize when we chose it. But that's ok because it is a good story.

From the publisher:

A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book—a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-fi rst birthday, they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and very little to go on, "Nell" sets out to trace her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell’s death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled. A spellbinding tale of mystery and self-discovery, The Forgotten Garden will take hold of your imagination and never let go.

The chapters of this novel alternate between the stories and time periods several main characters. There is quite a bit of set-up involved so the first 100-150 pages can feel a little slow and confusing but it all comes together. I'm not sure if I would have read this or not if it hadn't been for book club. I am glad I read it but would be selective with whom I recommended it to.

To Read: Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I am super excited to read this book. I'm not sure how I am going to be able to wait until September!

From the publisher:

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.  

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. 

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.  

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

A little of this, a little of that...

Hopefully sometime this week I'll have my post on The Forgotten Garden up as I finished it up last week.

I decided that I'd start The Passage next. I feel like this was a mistake for two reasons. The Forgotten Garden is 560 pages and The Passage is 784 pages. So I probably should have read something shorter in between as two books that long back-to-back are a challenge for me. Also, I'm dog/cat/house-sitting this week and I am pages from the end of Part 1 and things are a little intense. Normally I don't think I would have thought anything of it but seeing as how I am a HUGE scaredy cat once the sun goes down and I am staying in someone else's house alone I'm afraid this might keep me awake at night. So my plan is to read the last few pages of Part 1 today at lunch and then wait until I am back home next week to continue on. I'm really enjoying this book but I think I'm going to have focus on finishing One Day even when I am not at the pool.

I also picked up a couple of new books over the weekend. The first one is Good Omens by Nail Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. This is my work book club book for August. Then I also got Blood Red Road by Moria Young.

I have a a running list of books I am thinking of ordering sometime this week.

1. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (Book Club Book)
2. Fire By Kristin Cashore
3. Maine By J. Courtney Sullivan
4. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates  By Wes Moore (Book Club Book)

I think after I get those I'll be good for a while on new books. :)

Currently Reading

As I mentioned on Friday, I was slowly making my way through The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton last week. I have to admit it was slow going. Yesterday morning I was only on page 90. We are reading this for our June 23 book club meeting so I figured that if I read 18 pages a day between now and then I'd be finished on time.

Then somehow I ended up reading over 200 pages of it yesterday. So I must have gotten to the part where you get sucked in. Although I don't really feel sucked it. There are so many narratives and lots of details so it can be tiring at times. Now that I am into the heart of the story I am enjoying it more than I was last week. Still I'm anxious to finish it and move on. I actually thought this might be the first BV book club book that I wasn't going to finish. I'm glad it didn't get the better of me.

I started reading David Nicholls' One Day on Friday at the pool. This is at least the third time I've begun this book and I got a lot further than I have every other time. It's great for reading poolside (which is my plan). While reading it I just want to yell at both of them because obviously they want each other. Also, I'd like to tell Dex want a jerk he is. I'm only about 100 pages in so I am sure there are a lot more places where I'll feel this way. I already feel sad for both of them and I am sure it is only going to get worse. Is this one I should be sure to finish reading while at home? Is it going to make me cry?

Books I want to read

I haven't done one of these posts in a while. It is always funny to look back at them.These are a few books I recently added to my to-read list or recently bought but haven't yet read.


Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare


The Passage by Justin Cronin


One Day by David Nicholls


Fire by Kristin Cashore

I'm currently reading The Forgotten Garden By Kate Morton for book club. It is long and kind of slow going so I'm sure I'll read a book or two while I am reading it (unless it picks up the pace).

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Graceling by Kristin Cashore has been my to-read list for quite a while. I have gotten so many recommendations to read it. Finally after last week's book club meeting I decided it was time.

Graceling is the story of Katsa who lives in the middle ages and was born with a Grace. What is a grace you might ask? A Grace is something like a super power. Usually, a person graced can do something that a normal person can do but do it phenomenally well. Typically when a child is born their eyes are watched very carefully. If one day the eyes change color and each eye is a different color then the child is known to have a grace, although what that grace may be is usually still unknown. If a child is graced, he or she is taken into the King's Court to do his or her bidding.

Katsa was born with the grace to kill. At 8-years-old she began killing and maiming men for her uncle, King Randa. As Kasta matures she realizes that she doesn't always agree with the missions Randa sends her on and she begins to struggle with the power he has over her. She also meets a prince from one of the other kingdoms named Po, who also happens to be graced with the skill of hand-to-hand combat. Katsa and Po become friends and her life is forever changed.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I loved Katsa and Po. Katsa is such a strong female protagonist who truly stands by her beliefs. And Po could be considered a man way ahead of his time as he is definitely a feminist (at least when it comes to Katsa and respecting what she wants out of life).

There are two other books in this triology, Fire, which has already published, and Bitterblue scheduled to publish June 21, 2012. These books have different main characters than Graceling, which I admit disappoints me a little because I really loved Katsa and Po. I think they'll be in the books that follow but as minor characters.

5/5 stars on this one!

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls is our June book for my department book club. I was curious to see how I'd like this book because I didn't really like The Glass Castle.

Half Broke Horses is the story of the life of Wall's maternal grandmother, Lily Casey Smith. She calls it a true-life novel as she had to fill in some of the blanks herself. I must admit that Lily's life is quite amazing. She grew up on a ranch and was a very hard working kid. She managed to get her GED and eventually went to college during a time when many women didn't receive much of an education. You name it and Lily probably survived it.

It was very interesting to see the childhood of Wall's own mother in this novel and it helped explain why she was the woman she was.

I have to say that the title kind of annoyed me. It sounds grammatically incorrect. Also, within the book itself  when horses are being discussed they always used a hyphen so that it read half-broke horses, so why isn't there a hyphen in the title?

This was a quick easy read. I gave it 3 stars out of 5 on goodreads.com.