Tuesday, April 1, 2014

March Books

Happy April Fool's Day! Hope no one gets you! I have a few fun things for the littles at suppertime tonight. I ran over to Dollar Tree yesterday and picked up two jokes/pranks and silly glasses for everyone. James doesn't even know what April Fool's is, but I'm going to start him early. My two best years were when I sewed my mama's slippers together (we read a book - George and Martha - where the character's slippers got nailed to the floor...I was smart enough to know better than do that!) and the year that I told Mama that her painters she'd hired to paint the living room were being arrested. There WAS a police car out front talking to one of them, but no arrests were taking place. OH, the look on her face was funny. We've also been known to wrap a rubberband around the sprayer on the sink and get Mama or Sonny. Whoops. Sorry, Mom, for being the target every time! It's just because she has such a good reaction! ;)

Okay, so onto my books from March!

Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker
This was my least favorite of all my books this month. It read like a fictionalized textbook. It was NOT good. Written from the perspective of a dinosaur, we follow "Raptor Red" and her family through a few years of life. I DID finish it, but only because I wanted to see what happened to her in the end. The author is a paleontologist and it really just read like a textbook, in my opinion. Not my favorite...

The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks
This was a sweet book! It had been a while since I read Nicholas Sparks. I think that he has a little bit of a formula for writing his romance novels, and this one fell into that category -sort of. It captured my attention, though, and I enjoyed it! The book followed the love stories of two couples - one couple who married in the 40s and one couple just beginning their relationship. The stories are woven together in a very unexpected way. As always, I enjoyed this Nicholas Sparks' book, he's just not an author I want to read more than every once in a while. Easy read! Would be great for a trip to the beach!

Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston
This book turned out to be my FAVORITE book of the month. I found both this one and Raptor Red on a list of books titled "If you liked Jurassic Park, try these..." After Raptor Red being such a bust, I was nervous. This one was totally different and I LOVED it. A "treasure hunter" is found shot in the middle of the desert. When he's found he gives a notebook full of code to Tom Broadstreet and tells him to give it to his daughter, Robbie. Tom has no idea who the man is or how to find Robbie but he makes it his mission to fulfill the man's wish. Meanwhile, the shooter is making it HIS mission to find and steal the notebook. As the book progresses it becomes an even bigger tangled mess and Tom and his wife and friend are working against all odds to find Robbie. It was an excellent story with plenty of twists and turns. HOWEVER, the title is a little misleading. This story isn't ABOUT dinosaurs...it just takes place in Tyrannosaur Canyon.

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

James and I read this one together. We both enjoyed it, but it was a LONG read and probably better suited for an older child reading on his/her own. James really enjoyed the fact that Pa hunted their food and he asked plenty of questions about how they did things. It was definitely interesting, and we'll read the rest, but it may not be the best read-aloud (especially for younger children). James' favorite parts were when Pa told stories. I'll have to let him watch the show soon and see how he likes those!

As always, tell me what you're reading!

2 comments:

Jackie said...

Almost done with The Book Thief. Have you read that one?

pcb said...

I felt exactly like you did about The Longest Ride. I only read it because someone gave it to me, but I really enjoyed it. That said, I'm right there with you on not wanting to read him too often.