January - February Books.

These past few months with so much driving I have had the chance to do a number of audiobooks and have actually had a few that I absolutely loved.


1 Year 100 pounds: my journey to a better, happier life by Whitney Holcombe - I almost never use the word hate when it comes to a book, but lets be honest here for a minute, I HATED this book. Like if Goodreads would have allowed me to give it a 0 star I totally would have kind of hate. I feel like telling the world to not read this book. It is a good book in theory and a quick read, but it is sending a horrible message. As a girl who has struggled with her weight from as far back as I can remember none of this book was encouraging, reassuring or even positive really. The horrible F word was thrown around way too much and I am not talking the F bomb here which has its time and place. I am talking calling a girl who is 10 pounds over weight fat. The book shows you how to calculate your BMI which is really a way of saying everyone sucks and not at all an indicator of health or fitness. I was hoping for an encouragement and some tips to help in the journey, but instead I was confronted with the idea that if you cannot lose the weight you are doing something wrong, and that it really isn't that hard and if you cannot do it, it is  your own fault and that if you are heaven forbid over weight you will never be happy, you will not have friends, boys will not like you and you will never get to accomplish anything you want to do in life. She directly says that at 230 pounds she could never visit China liked she dreamed of. Really? Really?!? Well at more than that I did three weeks backpacking Europe and I could do it again in a heart beat. Just saying. Rant over, I hated the book.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand - On another note I LOVED this book. I did the audiobook and it was wonderful. Edward Herman does the audio and if you know me I am in love, ok obsessed, with Gilmore Girls so I found it very comforting to listen to Richard Gilmore read to me. The audiobook was great, but so was the story. For a Non-Fiction Biography I was expecting dry at times and it was anything but, for someone stuck at sea for over a month I was expecting repetitive, but it kept you engaged and interested. It was such a fantastic story. I now cannot wait to see the movie.

Matched by Ally Condie - A good describing word for this book would be 'meh'. I will potentially read the follow up, but to be honest, the book seemed like a bit of a rip off. I liked the idea behind it, but at the same time it was a little strange and kind of slow. It also felt like i had read the book before sort of with so many other similar ideas like the hunger games love triangle and the I was kind of desperate for an audiobook at the time.

Only Mine by Susan Mallery - I love the easy to follow romanic mushy love story that Susan Mallery books provide, if only there wasn't so much sex. It may not be so bad to read, but when someone is reading it out loud to me it is kind of horrible. Therefore I skip parts of it and as a result I might be missing some one the storyline. So I would recommend them as a good trashy romance novel, but they are not for me. I am now on the hunt for a trashy romance novel without the trashy parts.

Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor - Never again am i getting a book off the shelf because the cover looks cool. Never again. I cried and cried and cried. It is a good book, but it is certainly in that genera of 'sick-lit' which I am in no place to handle. The Fault in Our Stars was one thing, because really how can you not love that, but this was a completely different situation and so not cool.

Panic by Lauren Oliver - I picked this book because it was written by Lauren Oliver and I had really enjoyed the Delirium series. As a result I had higher hopes for this book. It was ok, but nothing fantastic. It kept you reading to the end to find out what was going to happen which I guess you could say in a book is a success. However, this book was no where in the world of some of her previous books.