Wine and Reading...

This is my Friday night, and I love it. I am drinking wine, and reading. Roxy is sleeping on my lap. I have 3 books that I would like to read for March, so I am starting today. Those books are "Lucia, Lucia", "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and "Virgin Blue". The last 2 are for the online and regular Book Clubs that I have joined.

Into The Wild

I picked this book up, because there was a movie adapted from the story and I wanted to see the film. I read this in October 2007.

This was an intresting Biography of a young man from the early 90's who wanted to abandon all the current ways of living of the times and go to be one and live on his own in the Alaskan wild. It is told though the eyes of people who met him while he made his way from Virgina to Alaska as well as members of his family. It also has entries from books he made notes in and journal entries from this young man.

One of the last entries that are documented in his writing is "Happiness is to Share".

Lipstick Jungle

Just wanted to leave a tid bit about Candace Bushnell's novel "Lipstick Jungle".
This is the same author that has fame from Sex in the City, Trading up and 4 Blondes.

This story takes you through the lives of 3 very successful women that live in NYC. They have been friends since before any of them found success. Their personal lives, goals, careers, and families is what connects them in so many ways. The novel is interesting, touches on what each women values, weather it be money, love, children, moving up in their career, or friendship to each other.

This was for me a fun kick off to summer reading in 2007 for me. I liked this book and thought it was creative of having the view of each character through her best friends eyes. It does show that not everything is as it seems in a person's life. I know that it is now a TV show, but i have not seen any episodes.

Very Valentine

I think that I have found another favorite author! Adriana Trigiani's Very Valentine is a very intresting and descriptive book.
I had very heard of Trigiani till her appearance on The Today show, where she was talking about the book. I found her funny and really engaging. I then saw that she was going to be at my local Barnes & Nobles in March so I picked it up right away.
I found myself relating to the main characters desire to create something beautiful and seeing the beauty in all things. I think some of it was over board with the amout of adjectives that were used at first and then I really came to appreciate the style of writting.
This book solidified my desire to go out and explore other countries! I felt like I was in Italy with the characters and could see and hear what they felt.
Excellent book!!!
This book was read in February 2009.

Summer Sisters

In August 2008 I read Summer Sisters by Judy Blum. It was reccomended on the LIW boards so I figured I would read it for some summer fun. I thought it would be more light summer reading, than a story about how fun yet hard and complicated friendship can be.
It was not a bad book. It was not what I was thinking it was going to be. It was brought together nicely as a story. I felt like through the entire thing I was picking favorites for which character I liked the best. Still I am not sure which friend was right or wrong. It made me think a lot too on who is ready or willing to be a parent also. It also made me think about, does your past really affect your future, or can you change that, for better or worse?

Twilight Saga

These books were read in between Thanksgiving and Christmas 2008.

I liked book 1- Twilight I don't think that it is the best book that I have ever read. I think that because it is geared to a crowd in their late teens, some of it was a bit bland. Where as if the set was geared to an older crowd it might have been a bit more 'interesting'. The author was able to make me want to know more about these characters and their lives as vampires and possible wolves.

The second book in the series titled New Moon is better than Twilight, in my opinion.
I think as a whole it is a great source of entertainment. I think Twilight did a good job of setting up the series. However New Moon was excellent. I couldn't decide who I liked better, Jacob or Edward. The character development was great. There was so much action and twist in this book, that it really kept my attention much more than Twilight did.

Eclipse is book 3. I can't believe how wrapped up I am in this series. I couldn't wait to finish it! It was a page turner like the 2 before this one.. but it seriously captures you into the story. There are so many more characters and developements in this book. I found that so far in as the books progress the writing is better.

Breaking Dawn is the final book (for now) in this series. I never thought I would be able to get through all 750 pages of this book so quickly! I loved how it was told through different characters in the story. I was surprised by some of the twist, but I was disappointed by some of the peices of the story I felt were missing. However I think they were omitted because of the age group the story is geared to. Then again that is what your imagination is for.

The whole series is great! I would reccomend it to someone looking for a fun series to read.

Books that I would like to read-

I was discussing with some ladies about starting a book club. When doing so I came up with a group of books that I would like to read. Here are those books:


The Time Travelers Wife- Audrey Niffenegger
My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
The Shack - William P. Young
Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austin
Running With Scissors - Augusten Burroughs
Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea - Chelsea Handler
Little Earthquakes - Jennifer Weiner
Memory Keepers Daughter - Kim Edwards
The Glass Castle-Jeannette Walls
Remember Me? - Sophie Kinsella
The Guardian - Nicholas Sparks
The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfeild
Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson
Last Chance Saloon - Marian Keyes
The Reader - Bernhard Schlink

The Last Lecture

All I can say is thank you, to my friend for reccomending this book to me. I read it pretty quickly and it made me laugh and cry. There must be a calming yet uncertainty knowing you are dying and that you can only do so much. But with out limiting your life you can live your dreams and leave a beautiful legacy.

This book really made me relax and come to the realization that people do die, young and old. However what they leave behind are memories that are a gift. I also learned that the more I document my life the more it could be helpful to my family, friends, sisters, parents and my husband.

I decided after seeing some other people's book list, that I too, should have one. There is a lot of books that I have read over the years. Lately I have been reading more. However when asked what I have read, occassionaly I do forget. I want to chronical what I do like and do not. I can name some reccomendations that I receive from other readers on this blog.
Soon I will update books I have read in the past with what information I have on them.