The Mark

A friend suggested this book to me, and I am glad she did. It was a great way to start off my summer reading. An easy read that help my attention, but didn't require too much deep thinking. A little love story, some action, mystery. Wow, it really had it all!

It is about a girl in high school who discovers her birthmark has a funny design to it, and then after some random encounters with a few people she realized when they touched them (certain people) she felt a connection. Soon she and those few who she felt connected too discover they have similar marks. Weird huh? They are probably government experiments...or are they? They soon find themselves on the hunt to learn about their marks and in doing so learn a lot more than they bargain for. AND in the process fall in love. **Sigh**

I really did like this book. It was clean, foul language free, and enjoyable to read. The Prologue was just confusing and it drove me nuts until the end of the book when it all came together. And the characters all seemed to act older than a bunch of seniors in high school should normally act and at times the love story was just a little too cheesy for me...but then again they were in high school so maybe it was fitting.

Favorite Quote: "How ironic would it be for us to look eagerly toward graduation, only to then spend the rest of our lives looking longingly back to what we were trying so hard to move on from?" and " We were still laughing as we climbed into my car. I put the key into the ignition, started the car and then adjusted my rear view mirror. That's when I saw him. The man from the sandwich shop was sitting in my back seat. I immediately turned to look behind me, thinking 'we should be able to jump our of the car before anything happens. or i could call the police, but that would take too long. I ended up confronting him. "What are you doing in my car?"

Grade: B+

Bossypants

Doesn't the cover alone make you want to read this biography? It is what first drew me to the book and the fact that I think Tina Fey can be so funny. I honestly knew that there was a BIG chance for foul language in this book, along with dirty jokes and the like. I mean seriously she was on SNL...here is your sign right? But I hoped and hoped that instead of Tina Fey the SNL star it would be more like the Tina Fey on Baby Momma (have you watched that movie? So great) But alas it is the SNL Tina Fey. Within the first few pages she hit her swear word quota (once I hit so many naughty words I am done with the book), I was so sad. This was obviously going to be a funny book. But a rule is a rule...especielly when they are there to protect my innocent mind.

I did flip through the rest of the book and picked parts that I figured would be clean...I found a few and enjoyed those. Like Secrets of Mommy's Beauty, Remembrances of Being Very Very Skinny, Remembrances of Being a Little Bit Fat but it didn't take long before I realized that was probably it. Sad I know.

So if you don't mind too much swearing and some dirty jokes (at least I think that what they where...I didn't get them) then read this book. But if you want to keep it clean...avoid this one and just look at the cover and enjoy it.

Favorite Quote: "Ah, babies! They're more than just adorable little creatures on whom you can blame your farts. Like most people who have had one baby, I am an expert on everything and will tell you, unsolicited, how to raise your kid!"

Grade: D (for language and jokes I didn't get and am glad)

Sense and Sensibility

Before you get all excited about this book FINALLY being done...just know that I didn't get it done. I tried and tried and tried again but I am just not going to be able to finish it at this time. I fall asleep every time I open it. So I calling it quits. Maybe someday I will revisit the idea of finishing it, but not now.

Grade: incomplete

Save Me

Another great book! I have a feeling that 2011 is going to be a great year for literature! This was another short chapter book...I have mentioned before how much I love short chapters. I almost wish I could do a search for books with sort chapters and read those books. I loved the character development of this story. In fact I liked most everything with the book and I am excited to read more by Lisa Scottline. The only think I wasn't crazy about was the cover art. I don't get how the picture deals with the story and that bugs me.

Melly, is Roses daughter. She has a birthmark on her cheek that also makes her the mark of teasing at school. One girl especially likes to torment Melly. Amanda, is the pretty girl who never gets caught and people think she is an angel but really behind the scenes is a meany-head. Rose decided to volunteer at the school to see what is really going on. It just so happens that in the lunch room that day Amanda was in fact mean to Melly sending her crying to the bathroom. After keeping Amanda behind for a talking to, Rose found herself in a nightmare situation. There is an explosion and she is the only one who can save the girls. The results of her actions are HUGE and life changing. Things will never be the same for anyone.

Oh man...are you excited to read it? You should be. It is a great book!

Favorite Quote: Rose's mind reeled. If she got Amanda and Emily our of the cafeteria to the playground, she wouldn't have time to go after Melly. If she went to save Melly, she'd have to leave Amanda and Emily, who were right in front of her. She couldn't do that, and she couldn't leave her own child to die.

Grade: A

You're Broke Because You Want to Be

I really enjoy this book for 3 reasons.

1st: The author writes as though he is sitting there in front of you telling you off. Every now and then he will throw a "quit being a baby" statement in there and it makes me smile. He is straight forward and isn't going to sugar coat anything. Which is great since it also means this book is short enough to get through quickly. Don't worry he isn't that mean

2nd: I feel so great about where we are financially right now. This book is directed towards the family with lots of credit card debt living far beyond their means and digging a whole deeper and deeper every month. I realized by reading this that we have made a lot of really wise choices. Which brings me to...

3rd: We still have room for improvement and my new friend Larry Winget is helping me out with that. The cool thing is that it is pretty basic stuff...nothing fancy or tricky (phew).

Favorite Quote: "I once told a woman that she might end up having to eat wish sandwiches everyday. She said, "what's a wish sandwich?" I told her that's when you have two pieces of bread and you wish you had some meat to go between them. She didn't think I was funny."

" If you feed your mind as often as you feed your stomach, then you'll never have to worry about feeding your stomach or a roof over your head or clothes on your back."--Albert Einstein

Grade: B

Wither

Rhine is a 16 year old living in New York in a time where they have cured cancer and all other bad things. Instead children are born without any chance of having a disability or health problem. Which is pretty awesome. BUT with the cure for so many illnesses there are also consequences, children fir some reason are only living into their 20's (boys live 25 years, girls live 20 years...exactly). Not so awesome. As a result polygamy has spread like wild fire to ensure that the human race lives on. You see there was a 3rd World War and everyone else in the world is gone, except America. Rhine is kidnapped and sold to be a bride, she really doesn't like the idea and so instead of accepting it like her sister wives do she finds a way to run away and is determined to find her twin. Of coarse along the way she falls in love...always a nice touch.

This is just the first book of three, so part of me is curious to see what happens next. BUT it really wasn't all that AWESOME of a book. It was good, but there was so much ...description. At times it was great and at other times it was over kill. Also I felt like some of the things that went on were a little too old of a young adult book-not that it was naughty or anything...but oh I don't know. But it was good. And maybe I will read the next one. We will see.

Favorite Quote: nope there really wasn't one

Grade: C

Across the Universe

Amy and her parents, along with a hundred or more others were frozen, put on a HUGE space ship and then they were supposed to fly away in space to another earth-like planet 300 years away. When they get to the new Earth the "frozens" would set up camp, in the meantime there were about 3,000 people living on the spaceship (this isn't some weirdo SiFi story but it does take place in the future and in space). BUT something goes wrong and Amy is woken up about 50 years too soon. How annoying is that? And truly awful; she finds herself on a spaceship filled with people she doesn't know who act different then they did on the real Earth. She knew something was going on to make them act so weird and with the search for the person responsible for defrosting her she discovers a ship load of secrets!!

Sounds awesome right? IT is!

What a book! This was an amazing story and I enjoyed every single page. I loved a lot about this book. The character development was great. I love how some authors can make the reader actually care about the characters on a somewhat emotional level. I also loved that there was no swearing in this book...okay at least not real swearing since this is the future there were new swear words-gotta love that. Also, as a mother with more to do then read all day this book was mostly short chapters! That means I can wash the bathroom-read a chapter, clean the kitchen-read a chapter and so on. LOVE THAT. Read it-let me know what you think.

Favorite quote: Under the blue-crystal-flecked water, the girl finally jerks out the last of the tubes, and I see little electronic devices attached to the ends. The girl's eyes are wide open, and she's staring straight up at us. Her mouth is open in a perfect circle, sucking in the water. "What's she trying to do, drink it all up?" Doc asks, reaching into the watery mess for the girl. I stand back, horrified. "No," I whisper. "She's screaming"

Grade: A+