Week 29: The Snowman

This week's book:
The Snowman
By Jo Nesbo

Alright, this is going to be short. This week's book was not my favorite. I picked it up way before Christmas. I thought my sweet Hubby was going to wrap it and put it under the tree. He didn't, and so I didn't start reading it until way after Christmas. Every time I picked it up I would read a few pages and then get distracted by something else to read and wouldn't pick this book up for a few more days or weeks. Contributing factors that were working against me were the following: it's the seventh book in the series (I know I super duper need to start looking if a book I'm going to read is in the middle of a series). The second factor was that the book is in Norway and a lot of the names got super confusing because they were names I have never heard of before. Along with all the names being hard to remember, they all started with the letter H. But I think I real problem that I had was that I couldn't relate to any of the characters. They were all royal poops. The plot was pretty boring until the last about two hundred pages, which since the book was five hundred pages that's quite a while into the book.

The book is about a serial killer that does some weird stuff, but really don't all killers? The book is a movie with Michael Fassbender and it's really the only reason someone might want to see the movie. Maybe the movie is way better than the book but I was not impressed, and I don't know why I keep reading mysteries because I always am disappointed in the end.

Week 28: Becoming Sister Wives

This week's book:
Becoming Sister Wives:
The Story of an Unconventional Marriage
By Kody, Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn Brown

Last week was Valentine's Day and a week with a lot of sitting and waiting. I was watching and waiting for lab results and I really couldn't focus on anything last week. When I was heading to the hospital to get some medical assistance, I asked my sweet husband what book I should bring. Doctor’s offices always make you wait and I don't want to waste an opportunity to read without the kids. To be honest, I needed something to take my mind off of the whole reason I was going to the hospital in the first place. I was deep into a Jane Austen novel and a murder mystery, but neither of them seemed appropriate for my current mindset. The hubs said mind fluff, so a book about Sister Wives it was.

I have always been interested in the whole concept of sister wives. Not that I would ever, ever, ever want to enter that lifestyle, but just like “hmm, that's interesting”. I read a book a few years ago called The 18th Wife that jumped back in forth in time about the history of the Mormon church and a modern day story about the whole culture of plural marriage. I have watched Big Love on HBO and a lot of the episodes of Sister Wives on TLC. I even watched a few episodes of the show My Five Wives. It all seems so mind blowing.

The book from this week was written by the wives and husband of the TLC show Sister Wives. There are four wives and one husband. They combined have about twenty children. I don't know what the current count is because the book is a few years old. All of the wives entered their respective marriages by their own free will. All of the marriages are modern marriages with modern technology and having “normal” lives. They don't live in a polygamy community and, due to the nature of the show, they live out in the open with the whole world knowing how they are living their lives. Before the show, the family was living in secret and they were not public with their lifestyle.

The show doesn't shy away from much and is pretty honest with how everyone feels about each other. There are disagreements left and right. The wives are jealous of the time and attention that the other wives get from their husband. So in this respect I was not surprised by this element in the book. Two of the wives really can't stand each other and the newest wife seems kind of like she doesn't fit in the family. The husband had been married to three of his wives for almost twenty years before he started courting his newest wife and, even though they all knew what they signed up for, they all end up super mad at the new wife and their husband. So all of this you can pick up on the first season of the show if care to watch it, it's on Hulu and my sister is obsessed with it. What I found surprising was that the husband and wives all agreed they might not all have been in love when they married, nor do they get along with any of their sister wives; they have all been unhappy and felt like crap about themselves. How does any of this sound like a calling? Kody, the husband, seems to have loved his first and fourth wife right off the bat but his other two wives were to serve as other purposes. His second wife is more of a partner in making money for the family and his third wife was someone to break the tension between his first two wives.

If you have watched the first few seasons of the show you know the whole book. If you haven't already seen the show you can pick up the book and never have to watch the show. I am bummed I bought the book, so take from that what you will.

Week 27: Small Great Things

This week's book:
Small Great Things
By Jodi Picoult

This  blog entry is a day late because my family has gone through a not-so-great week. We have been dealing with a not-so-great kindergarten teacher, a sick little girl, and I have been having some medical stuff too. It's just been one of those weeks, if you know what I mean.

This week's book was actually a book I have already read last year, but my book group is discussing the book this weekend and I wanted to refresh my memory of the novel. The book was Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult and it's her latest novel. I loved the book the first time I read it and I loved it again when I read it the second time as well. It is definitely one of my favorite books she has written. I have read almost every book she has written except her first two books, which happen to be her two lowest rated works.

In college I read My Sister's Keeper like all the other twenty billion other people on the planet Earth. It was good and made me cry. I didn't love the movie adaptation, but whatever, they all can't be winners. My favorite of her books is Second Glances, which I should definitely reread because I LOVED it when I read it the first time. I went on to read many of her other works and then kind of fell out of reading her books. Most of the time, Picoult writes about hard hitting issues and, let's be honest, I don't always have the emotional strength to deal with the world, lead alone a book I am reading to relax.

Small Great Things is the story about an African American nurse who works in labor and delivery. She is taken off a case when a newborn’s parents are white supremacists. She ends up being put on trial when the baby dies. The story is told from three different character’s points of view, which is kind of how Picoult writes a lot of her books. The three points of view are the African American nurse, her white attorney and the last is the white supremacist father of the child who passed away.

The reason why this book blew me away is it shows the point of view of a white supremacist and dives into how someone could think how the way they think. It gave a  perspective that I have never ever have been in.  I was raised by bleeding heart liberals and have never been around a group of people who could be filled with that much hate. His story is a story of hate and how someone could be taught to hate. But, as the book states, if you can be taught to hate then you can be taught to love.

The African American nurse’s point of view was eye opening as well. She would point out how there are times that people do racist little things that they aren't even aware of. While every section of the book is so well written there are whole sections of the book are downright difficult and uncomfortable to read. It kept raising the thought “Am I racist without knowing it?” 

The third point of me was probably the point of view that was the closest to me and ironically spoke to me the least. The lawyer chapters were as if I had written them, and sort of kept the “white/open minded” reader grounded as what they would be thinking throughout the book.

As I have stated before, the novel can be downright painful at times, but it is so well written. It was one of the books that changed me in a way. I can't recommend this book enough. I am slightly dying for her next book that is scheduled to come out this year. I am also looking forward to hearing what my book group will say about this book.

Week 26: Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries

This week's book:
Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries
By Helen Fielding

I have a confession, I have loved Bridget Jones since middle school. I loved the movies and the books. It prompted me to write in my own journal/diary. I'm sure I wasn't the only girl that was in love with Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver at the same time. The original story is a loose adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which is not actually my favorite of Austen's works, (Sense and Sensibility). We all know she should stay away from the turd that Cleaver truly is, but really Darcy is kind of poop as well. Bridget is a shallow/flake of a woman, unlike the heroine of Austen's fantastic novel. Let's just be honest, the whole Bridget Jones's Diary series is just mind candy. But sometimes you have to enjoy some fluff as my sister likes to say.

If you haven't read the first two books of the series, you will be totally lost when reading this week's book, which is the fourth in the series. All the characters aren't exactly explained, so you can't really jump in to the fourth book. But to be honest, who would jump into a well known series and not have read the first books? The third book of the series doesn't really make sense due to the fact that Bridget is a widow and has two kids, which takes place before the fourth book, which she has never been married or has children. I will say as a stand alone book the third book is okay, but as part of a series it doesn't fit.

This past summer I was just about to go on vacation with my in-laws and I wanted some light reading for when we came back to the hotel from doing whatever we had done during the day. Well turns out we went to the zoo two days in a row in one billion degree heat and the kids and I fell asleep the second we got to the hotel each night. The book was put back on the unread shelf and was kind of forgotten until a few days ago. I have started planning my best friend's baby shower this past week and it got me into a baby mindset. I have been working on a baby quilt for hubby's college roommate’s daughter, and I didn't realize that a major chunk of it has to be done by hand. I needed a break and read this week's book in less than two days. I recommend the book if you like the series. Of course it's predictable but who cares, everything doesn't have to be Dicken's.

Week 25: Ready Player One

This week's book:
Ready Player One
By Ernest Cline

This week's book was one of the gifts I bought my husband all the way back in September for his birthday. We read it together. I will be honest, it was totally for him, for I would never had chosen it in a million years. But now that it's done I am glad we read it.

The story is about a high school aged boy named Wade in the near future in a dystopian society. (Everything is in the pooper with the economy, society and environment all in shambles) As a result everyone lives on line in a virtual reality game called the OASIS. You can be whoever you want to be, look, sound and act however you want.

One of the creators of this world sets up an “Easter egg” moments before his death, and if you find it you receive his estate and control of the OASIS. Think Willy Wonka, but WAY more nerdy. If you don't know what an Easter egg in a video game is, don't worry, I didn't know what one was until I married my ridiculous husband. An Easter egg is a little hidden bonus or reference that game developers slip into the code for fun for the players to find later.

The book follows one boy's journey in his quest to find this ultimate prize. We meet fellow gamers on the same path to win the contest. Together, they race against a massive corporation who are trying to take over the OASIS by any means necessary.

The book is chock full of 1980 pop cultural references. If you have met me, you know I love the 80s, it was when I was made. Movies and music, not so much the video games and tabletop games, but it's still my favorite decade. If you were wondering if the Hubs enjoyed the book and you need a reminder of the nerd my husband truly is please reference my blogs about The Martian and The Hobbit. When my husband was explaining the book to his brother, my brother in law stated it was “nostalgia porn”. 

Hubby and I agreed about how the book is a little teen angsty in spots. This is the author’s first novel and I wish he was just a little better of a writer. The book has a cool idea but the author doesn't portray it well enough. As a whole, I would say that I would recommend the book. However, know thatthat book is filled with lots of nerdy/geeky references, and if i didn't have my husband acting as a nerdy Cliff Notes, I would've been lost.