I am back!

So sad to think that it was NOVEMBER since I last posted books that I read.  What is even more sad are the books that I have read since then.

I was limited.

I have been reading books mostly in the middle of the night while I nursed Ryan.  Doesn't help me retain much of what I read.  But I do remember they were pretty lame.

I guess that is what I get for reading free books from my kindle.  Free sometimes means "awesome great deal.  its my lucky day"  or it means " we couldn't get anyone to spend anything on this...so here.  have it.  Please take it...by the way it is crap"

But at 1 in the morning who cares really?

Then my computer broke.  Awesome....or not.

But I am back now.  I am reading a great book and I have 2 more waiting to be read.  I am very excited.  I have been reading books mostly off the kindle for the last year and I have missed turning real pages.

So...for those three of you who glance my way...I have returned

All is right with the world once more.

Have you ever watched Castle the tv show?  Oh it is one of our favorites in the Stark home.  It is mysterious, funny, clever, and there is romance and fighting and chasing.  One of the main characters (Richard Castle) is a murder mystery writer and on tv he tags along with a detective for ideas.

I was curious if this was a real author or not so I looked him up and there are a TON of books by Richard Castle.  I bought and read the cheapest one...must to my disappointment it was very short but still very good.

It is about a man named Storm who was some kind of unknown agent, the kind that did the job without anyone knowing it was him and no one was supposed to since it wasn't always legal.  He is called back into work after a 3 year leave and has to solve a kidnapping case.  A congressman's son has been kidnapped and the father is a very hated man so the guilt party really could be anyone.  As Storm investigates he begins to see how far and deep this goes.  There are bombs that go off, and money burnt up and some flirting and all that good stuff.  It also takes place in Washington DC and that is always fun since some of the places I have been to and that is cool.

It was a tease of a book thought, it ended quickly with a note saying if I wanted to read part two I would have to buy it...

stink.

It was a good read, now I am trying to remember if there was a lot of swearing.  I don't remember.

If I could find these books at the library I would read them.  But I wouldn't spend money on them.

I then was curious about this lucky man who is a successful author AND has his own TV show.  As it turns out he is a fake and someone is ghost writing all this.  that was a disappointing.  I think that is a big reason why I won't spend money on it.

(I couldn't get the picture to download.  grrr)

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Recently Amazon was offering two of President Uchtdorf's talks for free!  I realize that they are talks turned into books so what does that make them really?  But they are wonderful still.  It will be nice to refer to both of these talks on both good days and sad days.  And since they are talks and not beefy books it will be perfect for this busy momma.

If you have read them, do so.  What you get out of these talks will be different than what I do.  Just like every time I read them I will learn something different that is the gift of the Holy Ghost and the power of living scripture.  What a tremendous blessing it is to have living Prophets and Apostles on Earth today.

The Opportunist

This book caught my eye because it was $4 on my kindle and looked interesting.

(Can I just say one of the things I love the most about my kindle, besides being able to read in the middle of the night, is that I can tape on any word in a book and it will define it for me.  It has been wonderful to learn what these big words authors use actually mean.)

 

Anyway...this book is about a "damaged" young woman.  Her father left when she was young and only came back around when he was broke and would take whatever money her mother had made for food.  At times that left them eating nothing because daddy dearest took the last dollar and went to McDonald's for his own dinner.  Awful and sad.  At the age of 17 her mother died.  She is basically alone. 

 

The hunk of the book comes for booka-bucks and a mother that is a snob. 

 

Together they make one hot mess.  They might be in love but it isn't really a healthy relationship. 

 

I can't decide what I think about this book.  One on hand it had some language and a few sexual scenes that I could have done without.  On the other hand it was interesting to read about how messed up people can be without a moral compass.  When they aren't taught correctly what happens...

 

I am glad I read this book it was interesting and I wanted to know what happened to the characters in the end. 

 

 

 



Keeping Faith

Faith is a little girl in the middle of a horrible situation.  For the first chuck of her life her mother was a little too self absorbed for a mother and then one day they came home to find her father home with another women.  GROSS.  AWFUL. 

 

It sent Faith's mom into a spiral down into a deep depression as she dealt with the rejection as well as a divorce her husband was now filling.  Faith withdrew into her own world.  She didn't understand who the woman was and in her mind her Daddy left because of her.  She quites talking.

 

And then she begins to have an imaginary friend who teachers her scriptures and songs that her parents never taught.  In fact they never went to church or had any religious leanings.  How is this little girl doing this?  And then miracles begin happening.

 

In this day and age a little girl performing miracles will draw a crowd...and boy does it.  As the divorce goes from awful to ugly Faith's mom becomes the mother she always dreamed of...because she realized that motherhood isn't perfection, it isn't doing everything right while wearing the perfect clothes and beautiful hair.  It is loving completely no matter what and doing what is best for her child.

 

It was a good book.  Since I have very little knowledge about the Catholic faith or the Jewish beliefs I was learning a lot in this book.  It was interesting for sure.  Plus it was an amazing story.  Then again if you have ever read a novel by Jodi Piclout then you know that her stories have layers...many layers. 

 

There was some language but I would still say it was a good book and I am glad I read it.

Divergent

Oh man...this is a great book.  I mean GREAT!!

 

It takes place in the future, but it isn't so weirdo that it is crazy to believe it.

 

People are separated into factions (groups)...based on their talents or really their personality traits.  So the selfless live all together, the peaceful all live together, the intellectuals, and brave.  There might be one other but now I am not sure.  Living this way has kept the peace as people live together but separate.  All the groups need each other in some way or another and they have learned how to help each other without bringing out the negative sides of their factions.

 

The Prior family are Advergents which is the selfless group.  Beatrice has never felt like she fit in and so when she turned 16 had a choice to make.  See when kids turn 16 they can choose to stay in their current faction or switch.  Once they switch that is it.  No going back.  If the try they become factionless which is seen as worse then death. 

 

So Beatrice turns 16 her older brother is just 9 months ahead of her so he also chooses the same day. No one talks about it.  So no one knows what will be chosen until the very moment.  Intense.

 

It goes from there.  It is a great book.  Very interesting and I highly recommend it. I would tell you more...but I don't want to ruin it.

 

So I guess you will have to read it.

 

Go on. Read it now...because there is a 2nd book and I bet sooner or later there will be a 3rd.
(someone wants to be the next Hunger Games super star)

Insurgent

This is the second book following Divergent.  Just to give you a hint as two whether I liked these two books or not...I bought them both.  So that should be a HUGE clue.  I really enjoyed them and couldn't wait to figure out what was happening and what would happen to all the characters.  Love books that make me care.

 

 

I think what I did wrong when reading this was that I read it too quickly after Divergent.  So it was a lot of the same thing all in a short period of time.  Other wise this book is also a great one. 

 

 

I don't want to ruin book one by tell you what goes on in book two...which makes it hard to tell you what book two is about.

 

It is action packed and there is a bit of a love story. 

 

 

My beef with this book is that it is children that are doing the fighting and killing and protecting and all that.  There are adults in there too but for the most part it is kids doing all the dirty work.  I think in the first book there wasn't so much fighting and so it didn't bother me as much, but this book  was a little much.  Kind of like Hunger Games-at first I didn't think much of the main characters all being kids...but by book three it was kind of awful.  But it certainly doesn't change the fact that they are all great books.  See what I mean?

 

See why I think I should have taken a break and then read book 2?  I don't think I would have had a problem with it then.

 

 

I highly recommend this book.  It is great and I am betting there will be a book 3-which I will read as well.

 

Also in my looking around they have  a cast for the movie...not to be compared to The Hunger Games...but even though the stories are totally different they are kind of the similar.   

 

Here is the link: http://www.divergentthemovie.org/divergent-trailer/