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+

The False Princess

The False Princess is, for sure, the BEST book (so far) for 2011. I kid you not. I loved this book from beginning to end. Last night I said up till midnight finishing it, that's HUGE. A sane mother doesn't give up sleep to read something she could read the next day during nap time. But I seriously couldn't put it down until I finished it and then after reading the very last word with a smile on my face I thought "I want to read that again!"

Nalia has reached her 16th birthday, she is also well prepared to someday be the queen. She has spent her entire life studying and learning to someday rule the country and to do so well. And then one day her parents, the king and queen, called her into their "office" to let her know that when the princess was born it was prophesied that she would be killed by her 16th birthday. So they had the real princess sent to a convent on the outskirts of town while Nalia simple stood in her stead "just in case." They informed her that know that the princess was 16 the fear of her being killed was gone and she could come home. Simple as that. Then the wizard (yes, there is magic in this book) lifted whatever spells had been cast so that everyone would believe she was the real deal. That very day they sent Nalia, whose real name as it turns out is Sinda, back to live with her only living relative. The end. Ha yeah right that my friends is only the beginning.

The author does such a great job with the character development that you actual care about what happens to the people in the book. You are happy when the evil people flub up and giddy when good wins out. I actually giggled out loud last night and woke up my husband. It is that good. This is a must read. I can't wait to see what else this author writes.

favorite quote: "for a girl who's supposedly got all this learning, you can be sort of stupid, Sinda."

Grade: A +

When the Calls the Heart

I was blog hoping around reading blogs and one blogger decided to read 10 books published during her birth-year. I thought that was a fun idea so I stole it. I looked it up online and found that most of the books written the year I was born were romance novels. Not really wanting to read those I wrote done the ones that interested me and head to the loverly library. I then realized that out the 6 books I picked only 1 was even at the library. So I got it. I knew it was be clean at least. Janette Oke is not known to write nasties.

This is a story about a young woman, Elizabeth, invited to leave the comforts of her eastern home and school to teach out west. After she awesomely snubs the super attendant's offer of matrimony (bahh haa) she is sent to the smallest town furthest away. She certainly had no desire to marry a westerner as try as she might she ended up falling in love anyway. But lest be honest I don't think she tried all that hard to NOT fall in love.

I was a little more than bummed when I realized that the sweet little love story I was excited for lasted about 7 pages. Don't you hate that. Anyway. It was still a sweet story. Not that best I have ever read, but certainly better than others. Amazingly enough this was turned into a movie and even more amazingly I kind of want to watch it. The guy she falls for is a Mountie and there is something about those uniforms that I just know will make it worth it. We will see.

Favorite Quote: "No man ever has kissed me--not for any reason," I threw at him. I would rather have been mauled by that bear that to be so--so indebted to you, Mr. Delaney!" I jumped from the auto and ran blindly across the ditch and down the pathway from I had just been rescued"

Grade: C+

Northanger Abbey

Cathrine is a 17 year old girl on vacation with her aunt and uncle in Bath. Her Aunt aunt is another one of my favorite characters-she says so many great things in this book, and when I say great I really mean I laughed out loud. Cathrine is able to meet and few different people and becomes friends with 2 different girls. Through both of these friends she realized the reality of true friendship and the joy of older brothers. I guess she also begins to understand the quality of a man as well. One of her new friends invites her home for a visit and they just happen to live in an Abbey. Cool? YES. Cathrine is very well read on non-fiction and believes Abbeys to hold alot of mystery and awesome chances for goosebumps.

This was a delightful story from beginning to end. Sometimes it takes me a while to fall-in-love with a Jane Austen book. But Northanger Abbey had me at, "No one who had ever seen Cathrine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine."

Favorite Quote: "At any rate, however I am pleased that you have learnt to love a hyacinth. The mere habit of learning to love is the thing; and a teachabelness of disposition in a young lady is a great blessing." and "A mother would have been always present. Another would have been a constant friend; her influence would have been beyond all other" and " 'Cathrine would make a sad heedless young house-keeper to be sure,' was her mother's foreboding remark; but quick was the consolation of there being nothing like practice."

Grade: A+

Forever

Wikipedia says: Forever... is a 1975 novel by Judy Blume dealing with teenage sexuality. Because of the novel's content it has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000 at number seven.

NUMBER 7 out of 100!!! I would believe it. This story was extremely over the top descriptive. Too much. It is about a high school senior girl that meets and quickly falls in love with another senior boy. Their relationship takes leaps and bounds and they believe that their love is meant to last through the ages. In the end...the to committed teens found summer jobs in separate states with separate people surrounding them. You can guess the next part.

I think the actual story itself is fine. Blume shows that you can truly feel love for another person but that doesn't mean it is going to last forever. Especially at such a young age. The BIG problem I had with this book was all the sex. I mean seriously, there was a lot...way too much for a book about high schoolers. I must be naive (still) about what goes on at that age. I felt like she made it seem okay, and necessary almost. I was also bothered by the main character's parents. They gave her way too much freedom, making it seem almost as though they didn't care what she did in her personal life. Which is what is wrong with society today more than ever. Parent give way too much freedom and then wonder why kids do what they do.

Favorite Quote: "She introduced herself to Michael, then tapped me on the head and said, "this idiot is my friend, Kathrine. Don't mind her...she's a little strange." "I noticed," Michael said. He wore glasses, had a lot of reddish-blond hair and a small mole on his left cheek. For some crazy reason I thought about touching it."

Grade: F (for sexual content)