Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2013

What I Meant To Read This Year ...But Didn't

You know that annoying little thing called life that always seems to take up all your time?  Yes, that! That's what has gotten in between me and my first true love: Reading.  I am ashamed to say this year wasn't one for the books. (see what I did just then? :)  So here is a book round up of the books that should have been.  2014, please spare me the drama that your friend 2013 served me up, (with sides of huge life changes and second helpings of trials and tribulations) and let me get some reading done, mmkay??  First off, I actually started this book and put it down at some point. I really think it has potential. It usually takes me a while to get into historical fiction but once I do, I am always glad I stuck with it!  I have a feeling I'll love this book because I LOVED "The Doctor and The Diva"  A gripping novel set in Belle Époque Paris and inspired by the real-life model for Degas’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen and a notorio

Book Review: The Circle

I read a book!  *raises hands in the air and jumps around in celebration. The Circle by Dave Eggers Synopsis:  When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the mo

Book Round Up: Orange Is The New Black Edition

I shouldn't be surprised that a TV series that I am completely in love with started from a book. This week, the stars aligned and I have some time off work during the week, which has resulted in some guilt free lounge time. I have watched almost the entire series of Orange is the New Black this week.  Notice I said ALMOST, so no spoilers!  I've noticed a lot of articles about the differences between the book and the TV series so I am sure there are noticeable differences, but I still want to read the book. I love that Piper is real and her stories are authentic.   From Goodreads:  With a career, a boyfriend, and a loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the reckless young woman who delivered a suitcase of drug money ten years before. But that past has caught up with her. Convicted and sentenced to fifteen months at the infamous federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, the well-heeled Smith College alumna is now inmate #11187–424—one of the mi

Book Round Up!

I am super intrigued by this book. What DOES happen when the women who are disappearing are prostitutes and can we honestly deny the fact that their lifestyles didn't effect the way their murders were prioritized?  From Good Reads:  Award-winning investigative reporter Robert Kolker delivers a haunting and humanizing account of the true-life search for a serial killer still at large on Long Island, in a compelling tale of unsolved murder and Internet prostitution. One late spring evening in 2010, Shannan Gilbert, after running through the oceanfront community of Oak Beach screaming for her life, went missing. No one who had heard of her disappearance thought much about what had happened to the twenty-four-year-old: she was a Craigslist prostitute who had been fleeing a scene—of what, no one could be sure. The Suffolk County Police, too, seemed to have paid little attention—until seven months later, when an unexpected discovery in a bramble alongside a nearby hi

Book Review: Redesigning Rose by Lydia Laceby

I know what you are probably thinking.  "Is Jen actually doing a book review on her blog? No way!" I know, I know. You probably thought I forgot how to read.  Luckily, I dove back in. Maybe it was the move, the stress, the kids or just plain wanting SLEEP, but I definitely went on a bookworm hiatus and I missed it so much. But luckily, the best way to get back into reading is finding an awesome book and I did just that!  A little back story: last year, I stumbled upon a website called Novel Escapes and noticed they were looking for more book reviewers. My heart skipped a beat and I sent an email immediately, telling the contact person that I would love to review for them and that it would be like a dream come true...it wasn't until after I wrote the email that I noticed the article asking for more reviewers was a year old...but I just had a feeling and I hit send anyway. And that little feeling turned out to be great intuition when months later, Lydia Lac

Asians, Murder & Love: 5 Books To Read This Summer

HELLLLLLLLO, FRIDAY!  Even though there are way more than 5 things I could talk your leg off about right now, I thought I would go with a theme.  And if you know me, than you know I lerv talking about books! So here are 5 books that I NEED to get my hands on, like yesterday!   #1. Love Does by Bob Goff:  (For if you're feeling philosophical or need to be enlightened) From GoodReads: As a college student he spent 16 days in the Pacific Ocean with five guys and a crate of canned meat. As a father he took his kids on a world tour to eat ice cream with heads of state. He made friends in Uganda, and they liked him so much he became the Ugandan consul. He pursued his wife for three years before she agreed to date him. His grades weren't good enough to get into law school, so he sat on a bench outside the Dean's office for seven days until they finally let him enroll.  Bob Goff has become something of a legend, and his friends consider him the w