Happy New Year!
I never did get around to posting what I'd read in November, so I thought I'd just throw November and December together. I did NOT meet my goal of 52 books in 2013 {I was 9 books short}, but I thought that 43 books was pretty darn fabulous considering I don't often read at night before bed and naptime is just about my only reading time during the day. If you're interested you can always follow me on Goodreads or click the Books tab at the top of the page. Okay, onward to the past two months' of reading.
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
This was such a good book! It was the first one in a long time that I haven't been able to put down. It's all about a young girl whose daddy has pretty much run out on her and her mama. Her mama has bipolar disorder for which she refuses treatment and CeeCee winds up taking care of her a lot of the time. Because of some events {I hate to spoil everything!} CeeCee winds up living in Savannah with her great aunt, the first person who has really ever taken care of her. She meets several women in Savannah who wind up changing her life. Such a great book!
Psycho by Robert Bloch
So you know that I have weird reading choices, right? This one is no different. I recently watched Hitchcock and when I realized that Psycho was based entirely on a book that was based on true events, I searched out the library to find it. If you like the movie, you'll love the book. I'm just a nut for old movies and old horror movies. A friend and I grew up scaring ourselves with these kinds of movies so I was excited about this. Psycho isn't really SCARY, it's more creepy and thrilling than anything, so this wasn't tough to get through. I'd tell more but it's really just like the movie. I enjoyed it!
The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans
TOTALLY changing directions here, huh? I set out at the end of November to read some Christmas-themed books in the month of December. This one was just such a sweet book. It's a very, very quick and easy read. You may have seen the TV movie based on the book a hundred years ago. The first in a three-book series, this one is about a husband and wife who move into the mansion of an elderly lady in Salt Lake City. She's hired them to be caretakers and to cook her meals. They quickly realize that the woman really wants a family in her home; she's able to do a lot on her own. The husband is very wrapped up in his other job when they first move in and Mary {the elderly woman} makes it her mission to help him see what truly matters in life. Through twists and turns in the book, we learn why Mary thinks this is so important. While this is certainly not the best book I've ever read, it was a great quick read and I enjoyed it!
Jaws: The Revenge by Hank Searls
Ughhhhhh. I love Jaws and I enjoyed reading Peter Benchley's book on which Jaws was based, but this was just a waste of time. This was based on the screenplay of Jaws: The Revenge, but Searls added a lot to it on its on - and that was not a good thing. I don't really even want to recap it. Suffice it to say, it was AWFUL. {The movie isn't great either!}
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
James and I read this together and we REALLY enjoyed it. I love the movie and it was very similar to the book, but the book obviously went into WAY more detail. James and I really, really enjoyed reading it together. It wasn't too terribly advanced for him to listen to. He's excited that Santa brought him the DVD so he can see the movie now!
Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis
Whew! This one was great, but it was almost difficult to read. Katie Davis left her comfortable {expensive} home in Tennessee after she graduates from high school and heads to...Uganda? She feels a definite pull that God is telling her to go there. Of course her parents are upset about it, but she promises that she'll go for a year and then come back and complete college. She gets to Uganda and falls in love with the country and the people and it is clear she's meant to be a missionary there. The works with orphans and feeds the hungry and helps get medical treatment for those who are sick. She begins working on adopting several little girls {at 18!} and opens a non-profit organization whose mission is sponsorship for children to attend school. At the end of the year she tearfully leaves the country, her children, her friends and goes home to keep her promise to her parents - and makes it one semester before returning back to Uganda. She's currently the mother of 13 little girls and the founder and executive director of Amazima - the non-profit I mentioned above. She encourages us to think about all the excess that we have and what we cling to that we don't really need, but not in a pushy, judgmental way. I thoroughly enjoyed this one! It's an incredible story.
Timepiece by Richard Paul Evans
This is the second in The Christmas Box series. I enjoyed this one more than the first! It focuses on the meeting, marriage, and early years of MaryAnne {the elderly widow in the first one} and her husband David. They meet because she interviews for position as secretary at his company and he falls in love with her. They marry under tough circumstances, but it is clear that they are very, very much in love. He is a very devoted husband, and later father, and their relationship is just so sweet. Unfortunately, life intervenes and their family is threatened when a black friend shoots a white man in self defense and David takes the blame. {The story is set in the early 1900s.} This is a very sweet, and very sad, story. This one was my favorite of the series.
The Letter by Richard Paul Evans
This is the final book in The Christmas Box series. I really enjoyed this one, but I was annoyed by a lot of it. I hate to tell anything about it because it picks up a few years after the second one and I'd ruin some things for the second if I begin sharing about the third. SO. I loved the series, was a bit annoyed with the middle of the third one {I think it was just frustration that the characters were being so ridiculous}, and loved and hated the ending. HA! It was a sweet series to read right at the holidays and I enjoyed it and am glad that I read them. {They're VERY easy reads. I could have read each book in just a day...and I don't have a ton of time to read.}
I'm excited about starting fresh today with my reading goals. {One is to read the Bible all the way through. I still have NEVER finished the Old Testament. Shame on me.} What are you reading in the new year?
I never did get around to posting what I'd read in November, so I thought I'd just throw November and December together. I did NOT meet my goal of 52 books in 2013 {I was 9 books short}, but I thought that 43 books was pretty darn fabulous considering I don't often read at night before bed and naptime is just about my only reading time during the day. If you're interested you can always follow me on Goodreads or click the Books tab at the top of the page. Okay, onward to the past two months' of reading.
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
This was such a good book! It was the first one in a long time that I haven't been able to put down. It's all about a young girl whose daddy has pretty much run out on her and her mama. Her mama has bipolar disorder for which she refuses treatment and CeeCee winds up taking care of her a lot of the time. Because of some events {I hate to spoil everything!} CeeCee winds up living in Savannah with her great aunt, the first person who has really ever taken care of her. She meets several women in Savannah who wind up changing her life. Such a great book!
Psycho by Robert Bloch
So you know that I have weird reading choices, right? This one is no different. I recently watched Hitchcock and when I realized that Psycho was based entirely on a book that was based on true events, I searched out the library to find it. If you like the movie, you'll love the book. I'm just a nut for old movies and old horror movies. A friend and I grew up scaring ourselves with these kinds of movies so I was excited about this. Psycho isn't really SCARY, it's more creepy and thrilling than anything, so this wasn't tough to get through. I'd tell more but it's really just like the movie. I enjoyed it!
The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans
TOTALLY changing directions here, huh? I set out at the end of November to read some Christmas-themed books in the month of December. This one was just such a sweet book. It's a very, very quick and easy read. You may have seen the TV movie based on the book a hundred years ago. The first in a three-book series, this one is about a husband and wife who move into the mansion of an elderly lady in Salt Lake City. She's hired them to be caretakers and to cook her meals. They quickly realize that the woman really wants a family in her home; she's able to do a lot on her own. The husband is very wrapped up in his other job when they first move in and Mary {the elderly woman} makes it her mission to help him see what truly matters in life. Through twists and turns in the book, we learn why Mary thinks this is so important. While this is certainly not the best book I've ever read, it was a great quick read and I enjoyed it!
Jaws: The Revenge by Hank Searls
Ughhhhhh. I love Jaws and I enjoyed reading Peter Benchley's book on which Jaws was based, but this was just a waste of time. This was based on the screenplay of Jaws: The Revenge, but Searls added a lot to it on its on - and that was not a good thing. I don't really even want to recap it. Suffice it to say, it was AWFUL. {The movie isn't great either!}
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
James and I read this together and we REALLY enjoyed it. I love the movie and it was very similar to the book, but the book obviously went into WAY more detail. James and I really, really enjoyed reading it together. It wasn't too terribly advanced for him to listen to. He's excited that Santa brought him the DVD so he can see the movie now!
HP and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
You didn't think I wouldn't have a Harry Potter on the list, did you? I dragged this one out for-e-ver and finally finished it last month. I'm going to take a break before I start the final book. {Yes, I've read them all at least twice before...} Half-Blood Prince is really and truly one of my favorites of the entire series. Dumbledore trusts Harry enough to clue him in on lots of things this year and we learn so much about Voldemort and why he's going after Harry. It's the beginning of the end. If you haven't read this series, I'd encourage it! They're so enjoyable to me. I love the way Rowling begins something in the first of the series that you'll think NOTHING about and then she makes it a HUGE part of another book. It's so interesting the way the story is woven together.
You didn't think I wouldn't have a Harry Potter on the list, did you? I dragged this one out for-e-ver and finally finished it last month. I'm going to take a break before I start the final book. {Yes, I've read them all at least twice before...} Half-Blood Prince is really and truly one of my favorites of the entire series. Dumbledore trusts Harry enough to clue him in on lots of things this year and we learn so much about Voldemort and why he's going after Harry. It's the beginning of the end. If you haven't read this series, I'd encourage it! They're so enjoyable to me. I love the way Rowling begins something in the first of the series that you'll think NOTHING about and then she makes it a HUGE part of another book. It's so interesting the way the story is woven together.
Whew! This one was great, but it was almost difficult to read. Katie Davis left her comfortable {expensive} home in Tennessee after she graduates from high school and heads to...Uganda? She feels a definite pull that God is telling her to go there. Of course her parents are upset about it, but she promises that she'll go for a year and then come back and complete college. She gets to Uganda and falls in love with the country and the people and it is clear she's meant to be a missionary there. The works with orphans and feeds the hungry and helps get medical treatment for those who are sick. She begins working on adopting several little girls {at 18!} and opens a non-profit organization whose mission is sponsorship for children to attend school. At the end of the year she tearfully leaves the country, her children, her friends and goes home to keep her promise to her parents - and makes it one semester before returning back to Uganda. She's currently the mother of 13 little girls and the founder and executive director of Amazima - the non-profit I mentioned above. She encourages us to think about all the excess that we have and what we cling to that we don't really need, but not in a pushy, judgmental way. I thoroughly enjoyed this one! It's an incredible story.
Timepiece by Richard Paul Evans
This is the second in The Christmas Box series. I enjoyed this one more than the first! It focuses on the meeting, marriage, and early years of MaryAnne {the elderly widow in the first one} and her husband David. They meet because she interviews for position as secretary at his company and he falls in love with her. They marry under tough circumstances, but it is clear that they are very, very much in love. He is a very devoted husband, and later father, and their relationship is just so sweet. Unfortunately, life intervenes and their family is threatened when a black friend shoots a white man in self defense and David takes the blame. {The story is set in the early 1900s.} This is a very sweet, and very sad, story. This one was my favorite of the series.
The Letter by Richard Paul Evans
This is the final book in The Christmas Box series. I really enjoyed this one, but I was annoyed by a lot of it. I hate to tell anything about it because it picks up a few years after the second one and I'd ruin some things for the second if I begin sharing about the third. SO. I loved the series, was a bit annoyed with the middle of the third one {I think it was just frustration that the characters were being so ridiculous}, and loved and hated the ending. HA! It was a sweet series to read right at the holidays and I enjoyed it and am glad that I read them. {They're VERY easy reads. I could have read each book in just a day...and I don't have a ton of time to read.}
I'm excited about starting fresh today with my reading goals. {One is to read the Bible all the way through. I still have NEVER finished the Old Testament. Shame on me.} What are you reading in the new year?
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1 comment:
Hi! You read a ton over those months, and I know you were so busy too! That's awesome!
I'm starting a 90 day reading of the Bible tomorrow. I did it back in 2010, and it was an amazing time in my life of growth in my relationship with the Lord. This is what I used, and I really think that specifically using this particular divided up copy of the Bible helped me complete it, if that makes any sense.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Bible-90-Days-International/dp/B007MXCO34
I'm going to add Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt to my list of things to read! Sounds good!
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