Time of my Life

Time of my Life written by Allison Winn Scotch I found to be a great book. I found it to be very inspirational as well. Jillian has it all, a home in suburbia, a great and faithful husband, and a daughter; but when she hears that her ex boyfriend is getting married, she has to think "What if?"-what if she stuck it out, what if she never married Henry (her now husband), what if she never had Katie(her daughter). On a visit to a masseuse he goes to unblock her chi and is whisked back to seven yeas earlier-she has yet to meet Henry and is still with her ex. She thinks that she is going to do things different this time round, but then everything starts to go wrong and Henry keeps popping up in her life over and over again... She later finds out that everything that she was unhappy about was her own doing. That her life was in her hands and she had a choice to be herself or to be what they wanted her to be. That is the part that I find inspirational. Everyone needs to know that being who they want you to be is not going to make you happy, you've got to be true to yourself first.
This book was very well written and a very easy read. I would recommend anyone who likes chick-lit to read it.

-JB-

Next up: Dewey

Walking in Circles Before Lying Down

This book, written by Merrill Markoe first got my attention from the back of the book summary "her Life Coach sister provides perpetual interference, and her eccentric parents need parenting." Plus any book where a dog is talking to you and sassing you is always fun... (plus my sister decided that she wants to be a Life Coach... gulp!)
So the gist of the book is this woman is not very lucky in love, with a crazy family... the one thing that is a constant good in her life is her dog. With her latest "love" walking out, she turns to Chuck her shelter dog for comfort, who then starts talking with her. Whether or not this was really happening or if she was becoming a head case was never really sorted out.
Hands down, my favorite part of this book is when Dawn(the main character's name BTW) accidentally burns one of her client's kitchen (she dog sits/washes/walks, etc...) She tells Chuck that her dad is coming to help fix the kitchen and not to freak out when he knocks on the door.
What do you know, when her dad knocks on the door the dog goes crazy barking... only you can understand what he is saying..
"Someone's at the door! Someone's at the door!.. Get away from the door you miserable jack-off, I'll rip your ass in half.... We hate you. We hate you. We hate you. We hate you"
...and then as soon as Dawn opens the door
"Come on it! Great to see you again! Thank God you're finally here! We missed you. Where have you been?"
This part of the book had me laughing so hard I was in tears... I still giggle when I think about it. Just the 180 that the dog does from hating and wanting to rip someone in half to being so happy and excited... well, it reminds me of my dog :)
For the most part the book was pretty good. I was able to stay interested in it. It was not one of my favorites though.

Next up: Time of my Life by Allison Winn Scotch.

-JB-

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is by Sherman Alexie. This is a book I had read for my Children's Lit class. I first want to say that the whole reason I picked this book was for the illustrations. One of the things that draw me to books are if they are not written like a typical novel (The Cheese Monkeys, and Extremly Loud and Incredibly Close are two other examples.) I enjoyed this book because the author told part of the story through illustrations which were hilarious (my favorite being the main character Junior throwing a book at the geometry teacher.) Although this book was funny, the author would be making you laugh one minute and then in the next sentence say something that would make you reread it and go "oh no!" This book also looked at some of the serious cultural issues faced today among the remaining Native Americans, poverty, alcoholism, and a loss of culture that Junior's teacher describes as "killing the Indians."
Even though this book is classified as a young adult, this is something that adults can enjoy and appreciate as well.
-JB-
Next up: Walking in Circles before Lying Down by Merrill Markoe

Blood sucking Fiends and YOU SUCK!

These two books are part of a series, so I'm just going to do a review for both of them in one post... Because let's face it.. with these two books, once you read the first one you are dying *no pun intended* to read the next one.
These two books are written by Christopher Moore, it's about Jody a women who get's changed into a vampire and meets C. Thomas Flood (Tommy) who becomes her minion AKA her daytime bitch... A few characters include
Elijah who is portrayed as the "bad guy,"
the Animals who are a bunch of oddballs work with Tommy,
The Emperor-a homeless guy who "protects" the city of San Fran from the vampires,
Blue *appears in You Suck* a Vegas Call girl who is well... blue....
Abby *appears in You Suck* Tommy's goth minion.
There are other characters, but they were not very important to me.... So both books are about Jody and Tommy's hilarious adventures trying to adjust to their relationship both while living and undead...
My favorite part of both books is when Tommy and Jody are trying to see how truthful the vampire books are.... Such as Tommy rubbing garlic on Jody while she is passed out...
Pretty good book, recommended by my husband... Once again a very funny book.
-JB-

Next up: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian