My Week in Books

What I Read and Reviewed Recently I swear to you that I've been reviewing each book as I have read it. Somehow, though, I skipped actually posting my reviews here and on Goodreads and at LibraryThing and on Amazon. I will do better in the future. Promise. cover title author review Born Reading: Bringing Up Bookworms in a Digital Age -- From Picture Books to eBooks and Everything in Between Boog, Jason* Boog sells you on his book right from the intro. Children whose parents read interactively with them are six to eight months ahead of other children,...more[edit] The Upside of Your Dark Side: Why Being Your Whole Self--Not Just Your "Good" Self--Drives Success and Fulfillment Kashdan, Todd * Okay. Quite the title, isn’t it?! Long but perfect, as that’s exactly what this book is about. I must report that reading this book has resulted in a...more [edit] True Stories, Well Told: From the First 20 Years of Creative Nonfiction Magazine Gutkind, Lee How much better it is for a book when you are the groundbreaker! True Stories, Well Told suffers only in comparison to the masterpiece of creative non...more [edit] Dinner: The Playbook: A 30-Day Plan for Mastering the Art of the Family Meal Rosenstrach, Jenny If you and your family find yourselves constantly eating out of a box, Dinner: The Playbook is for you. It is masterful and covers every possible ques...more[edit] Think Like a Freak Levitt, Steven D. Why are the Freak books so refreshing? Maybe they tap into that part of us as humans that reminds us that we really don't have everything all figured...more[edit] We Are Not Ourselves Thomas, Matthew * It started out well. The plot moved me along. Our main characters are Irish immigrant parents and their daughter. The daughter is driven as a teen to...more [edit] Friendswood: A Novel Steinke, Rene * I lived Friendswood. From the minute I first saw this book on the Coming Soon section of blogs, as soon as I saw it dealt in part with the Superfund t...more [edit] Biggles The Camels Are Coming Johns, W.E. I hated the first couple of pages; I didn't get what was happening in the story. Then I decided to back up and just read it and go with it, not trying...more[edit] Life According To Lubka Graham, Laurie * It didn’t take more than three pages of meeting Lubka before I wanted to adopt her as my grandmother. What a great character. Feet firmly planted on t...more [edit] Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems Collins, Billy Aimless Love: Billy Collins. And, if you are like me, that’s all you really need to know. Billy Collins is the most readable poet in America today. Hi...more [edit] War Horse (War Horse, #1) Morpurgo, Michael What an excellent idea for a book! Our main character is Joey, a farm horse, and he is going to war. It certainly turns things around to have a horse...more[edit] Riveted: The Science of Why Jokes Make Us Laugh, Movies Make Us Cry, and Religion Makes Us Feel One with the Universe Davies, Jim* Some books are annoying because the author writes too much out of his own experience and doesn’t draw on science. This book doesn’t have that problem;...more [edit] Seven Letters from Paris: A Memoir Verant, Samantha * We want the happy ending, don’t we? Sam did. She was at the end of her marriage, had slipped past forty with no children, and found her career had tan...more [edit] The Accidental Connoisseur: An Irreverent Journey Through the Wine World Osborne, Lawrence Lawrence Osborne learns about wine by taking a journey through the wine world. And, in the process, we learn a bit about wine, too. [edit] Before Happiness: How Creating a Positive Reality First Amplifies Your Levels of Happiness and Success Achor, Shawn If you tell me a book is about happiness, I’m gonna check it out. I just am. This one was not a disappointment. Here are the ideas I took away: “...in...more [edit] Life is a Wheel: A Passage Across America by Bicycle Weber, Bruce Bruce Weber rode his bike across America twenty years earlier. Now he’s in his fifties and he decides it’s time to do it again. Along the way, he meet...more[edit] The Roads to Sata: A 2000-Mile Walk Through Japan Booth, Alan This book is going straight to the top of my list of favorite travel narratives. What a story! What amazing people he met! And what a writer Booth is!...more [edit] Never Mind Miss Fox: A Novel Glazebrook, Olivia I don’t like to post reviews of books that disappoint me. I do it, nevertheless, as a public service; I would want to know if I was going to walk into...more[edit] Life With the Lid Off Hodgkinson, Nicola So happy I read this memoir, another book from the list of Mood-Boosting Books. Nicola Hodgkinson tells the story of her life as a single mother of th...more [edit] edit view » Murder Strikes a Pose (A Downward Dog Mystery #1) Weber, Tracy * I admit it: The cover sold me on this book. As soon as I saw it, I was eager to find a copy. Turns out, the cover was the best part. Don’t get me wron...more [edit] How Georgia Became O'Keeffe: Lessons on the Art of Living Karbo, Karen * Now I see why others have raved so much about this story. It’s the life of artist Georgia O’Keeffe, but you won’t find this story in the encyclopedia....more[edit] All the Light We Cannot See Doerr, Anthony * This is a story of small lives---an orphan who is an expert with radios, a blind girl who makes her way through her town by way of a miniature village...more[edit] Happy All the Time Colwin, Laurie Our main characters are actually not. (Not happy all the time, that is.) Nothing phases Holly. She’s imperturbable, un-ruffle-able. Nothing gets to he...more [edit] Thursdays in the Park Boyd, Hilary If you get nothing else from this book, think about this quote from the main character's Aunt Norma: "Sixty is heaven," she had told Jeanie as they sat...more [edit] The Awakening of Miss Prim: A Novel Fenollera, Natalia Sanmartín Expectation: will love. Actual evaluation: liked. Transformation novels are my favs. I’d thought, hoped really, that The Awakening of Miss Prim might ri...more [edit] Tales from the Yoga Studio Mitchell, Rain Everyone at the yoga studio has troubles. The owner of the yoga studio, Lee, is unexpectedly separated from her husband. Katherine is terrified of lov...more[edit] Girls Standing on Lawns Kalman, Maira I'd waited with great anticipation for Girls Standing on Lawns. And it was a lovely book. But it's only sixty-four pages. Just a bit of text. Okay, I...more[edit] The Year of the Book Cheng, Andrea Why is it that elementary girls are facing Girl Meanness these days? It never struck for me until junior high. Sigh. But that was long, long ago, I su...more[edit]

What Arrived Last Week These both look like great reads for me!

What are you reading today?!

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week. 

 It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme Book Journey loves to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme.