Always Looking Up, by Michael J. Fox

I love this guy, always have. But he is more than a celebrity who has been stricken by an awful disease. The man is a writer. He has such a beautiful command of the English language that I was so sad when the book ended.

His view point on how this disease has formed a life he never would have lived if he had remained healthy is so refreshing and while it would seem that whining might not be such a bad idea from time to time, he never does this.

I highly recommend this book.

Stolen Innocence

I'm sure everyone remembers the polygamous sect that was all over the news two years ago now or so about when over 400 children and young women got taken away from their families because they had been forced into a young marriage or weren't being properly taken care of. They were taken from a religion called Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They obey the prophet and it's a very dictatorship like religion.

This book is about a woman who grew up in this religion and at age 14 was forced to marry her first cousin. It's about her experiences growing up and living in a family with like 20 siblings just from her own biological mother. Then her father had two other wives with a similar number of children. Things happen and their family gets torn apart because of the dictations of this "prophet" as well as the fact that her siblings had powerful questions about their faith. Ultimately she ends up losing many of her siblings who defect because they don't 100% believe in the faith and then she is forced to marry and her mother does nothing to help her. She spends 4 years or so with this "husband" where he continually forces her to have sex and numerous other problems. Through this all she is meeting with the prophet asking to be granted a release from her marriage because deep down she knows that what she is experiencing is wrong, but he won't let her.

Elissa Wall speaks very eloquently about her experience within FLDS and why it took her so long to leave the faith, even with a number of her siblings telling her how great life outside of it all was. She was really able to represent the fear of being condemmned to hell if she stopped believinng in the faith and I found myself throughout her story actually sympathizing and understanding why she continued to stay in this horrible life. And I do not do religion.

Well written and enjoyable.

The Lords of Discipline

I absolutely loved "Beach Music" by Pat Conroy. It's a book I've read multiple times and will probably reread for my entire life. So I thought how could I not like another book by him right?

Well this book is all about a military institute and what it takes to get through college there and though I usually find books like this interesting, the entire story tended to get lost in the over-writing and description that Conroy uses. At points it almost felt like he had used a thesaurus or something in order to find the most intelligent sounding words and the description was INCREDIBLY lengthy and boring. Towards the last quarter of the book Conroy actually starts telling the story and it got rather interesting, but for sure not enough to make the book worthwhile.

Even through all the wordiness though you do care about the characters and want them to make it through the horribleness that is "plebe" year. haha

Anybody Out There

This book is about how a woman deals with losing her new husband in a horrible accident and it's a nice story when you consider only that. You can really relate with her pain and depression as she figures out she doesn't need to email Aidan (husband) anymore etc. Unfortunately the author also throws in random other side lines that seem to be there so that she is distracted from her pain, but it just ends up being fluff that you have to read through. Not fantastic writing either.

Handle With Care -- by Jodi Picoult

This has been on my Kindle for weeks, I started it on the flight home from Arizona and never seemed to be able to finish it. It is typical Picoult -- the same formula with the lawsuit and the medical issue. I enjoyed it, it is less over-written than her last few books (I believe her editor is actually working for her instead of kissing her ass!) always a good thing. But just like the past few books, I HATED the ending. It is becoming her formula ending. She needs a new formula or I am not going to be a devoted fan anymore.

Time to get out of the box Jodi!

Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

HALLIE: This book is a collection of letters from a number of town members who all belong to this Society that they created during WWII while occupied by the Germans. The letters are mainly between one woman, an author, who is trying to write a book about the Society and the members. The characters in the book are fun and curious, they are all from a small island so each of them have their quirks and special characteristics but above all they are truly good people and it shines through.

Pretty easy read, doesn't make you think to much but you def start feeling for the characters. I would consider it a good beach read.

TOMASEN: Not sure what the big hub bub was about this book. I actually found it quite boring at times!! So many other great books to read, but this one seemed to hit many people much differently than me!!